The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has said more than 10 million Nigerians who benefited from the Federal Government’s ₦75,000 conditional cash transfer are not active on social media because many do not have phones or television sets.
Yilwatda made the statement on Saturday while speaking with journalists after a three-day retreat of the APC National Executive Council in Maiduguri, Borno State.
According to him, the beneficiaries are largely poor and vulnerable Nigerians who have limited access to technology and therefore cannot participate in public discussions about government policies.
He said:
“We have given ₦75,000 to over 10 million Nigerians across the country using the conditional cash transfer under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.
Mind you, these people who are poor and vulnerable don’t have telephones to make calls, they are not on social media. They don’t have a television. They cannot come and challenge and discuss as we are doing here, but they are out there.”
Yilwatda also defended the Tinubu administration’s removal of the petrol subsidy while criticising former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over his position on the policy.
He argued that subsidy removal had helped states meet salary and pension obligations and provided resources for projects such as road construction and student loans.
Yilwatda further said a return to the subsidy regime could affect ongoing government projects.
“The projects we’re doing across the country, like the coastal road and gas project to the north, which have passed Abuja, which are aimed at easing the suffering of Nigerians, will be suspended,” he said.
