Obi advises FG to use revenue surplus for job creation, pension payments

Abdullateef Fowewe

Former Anambra State Governor, and former presidential aspirant, Peter Obi, has called on the Federal Government to demonstrate compassion by deploying excess revenues to critical sectors that would ease the hardship faced by Nigerians.

Obi in a statement on Thursday, established that the government had already met its revenue target for the year ahead of schedule, stressing that such gains should directly impact citizens through job creation and support for struggling economic institutions.

He expressed concern over the financial strain on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other key economic players, many of whom, he said, were unable to meet obligations to banks and staff.

He wrote, “Having met our revenue target for the year ahead of schedule, we should show sensitivity and compassion to the suffering masses by deploying resources to critical areas that will help to create jobs to alleviate the people’s hardships.

“For instance, critical economic players and their associated institutions are undergoing a serious dearth of funds, and their effect is showing in areas they support, like SMEs. Some of them are even protesting as they cannot meet their banks’ and staff needs.

“Why are retired public servants, including service men and women who have risked their lives for the nation, still protesting over unpaid gratuities and pensions?

“It is shameful that those who built this nation with their sweat, those who defended it with their lives, and those who have fulfilled their contractual obligations are reduced to begging for what is rightfully theirs, even after the government boasts of excess revenue.

“Achieving revenue targets means nothing if it does not impact the lives of the people, if those who serve and build the nation are left with unpaid entitlements in their difficult years, and those who have genuinely fulfilled their contractual obligations, most of whom are SMES with one form of debt or the other are still unpaid.”