Ekiti state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has described the N5,000 the federal government said it had started paying to the poor in Nigeria as a mere propaganda and advised them to stop running government and governance based on propaganda.
He said: “A blind man will say it is when it gets into my mouth that I will say you are feeding me, not promises.”
The governor, in a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said there was no evidence of the payment in his state, which is one of the states where the Federal Government claimed the exercise had started.
He said apparently, the states they claimed have started receiving the payment are All Progressives Congress, APC-controlled states knowing that the governors can not come out to disprove the payment.
He said the APC government led by President Muhammadu Buhari should come to the reality that Nigerians are hungry and also angry and no longer interested in empty promises.
He also explained that the people have realized that the APC government only operates by deceit and that Nigerians are running out of patience.
Fayose challenged the government to publish the number of people receiving it and the accounts of those receiving.
He insisted that the economic policy of the Federal Government ahead of the 2019 elections is on how to entrench themselves in power and is not focused on the welfare of Nigerians.
He condemned the N2billion to be spent on entertainment alone in the Villa in the 2017 budget.
While calling on the federal government to put a proper economic team, beyond party line in place to salvage the economy of Nigeria, which he said is already on the floor as many businesses have been closed down.
The Presidency on Wednesday, however, dismissed insinuation in some quarters that the commencement of the payment of N5,000 stipend to the less-privileged Nigerians was a “mere propaganda’’.
Mr Femi Adesina, the Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents in Abuja.
The Presidential spokesman urged Nigerians to be wary of its detractors as government continues to implement policies tailored towards uplifting their quality of life.
“On the N5,000 stipend for the poorest of the poor. It was announced specifically from the office of the Vice-President that the scheme has started in nine states and then someone came and said ‘is not true’.
“Is just a matter of who do you believe. This is a government that is built on integrity and accountability.
“This government will not lie to Nigerians, does not lie to Nigerians, in fact anything you hear from this government you can take it to the bank, believe it.
“So, if anybody says `it is politics’, is not true. Choose who to believe I can tell you that you should believe this government because this government will not lie to you,’’ he said.
Adesina said that the federal government had already commenced payment of N5,000 stipends to poor Nigerians as against insinuations that the programme had not commenced.
