Governor of Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, Uba Sani, recently launched a government-owned trust fund to support vulnerable and underserved citizens.
Development Diaries reports that the governor, speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of commissioners in the state, even pledged to donate 50 percent of his salary to the trust fund for the next two years.
‘This is part of my sacrifices towards reducing the cost of governance in Kaduna State, and to better the lot of the poor, underserved and vulnerable in our state’, the governor said.
He also called on the commissioners to avoid ostentatious lifestyles as ‘we must not be telling our people to make sacrifices while we are busy living in opulence’, he said.
The decision of the governor to set up a trust fund for vulnerable citizens is a commendable one – a measure that should be emulated by other state governors and even the federal government.
The removal of fuel subsidy has increased the level of hardship for the average Nigerian across the country and the federal government has yet to implement any palliative measure to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.
Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 133 million multidimensional poor people, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), with Nigeria’s current unemployment being about 33.4 percent.
The federal and state governments should be concerned about how the removal of fuel subsidy is impacting the livelihoods and well-being of the Nigerian masses, and take urgent action to address it.
More attention should be paid to reducing the cost of governance at every level so that the citizens can see the sacrifices being made by their leaders towards bearing the brunt of the subsidy removal.
Development Diaries calls on other state governors to emulate the action of their Kaduna State colleague by taking measures aimed at supporting poor and vulnerable Nigerians at this difficult time.
We also call on the governors and President Bola Tinubu to look into reducing the cost of governance at every level.
Photo source: Sen Uba Sani
