60% of subsidy fund smuggled out of Nigeria – Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has said the lack of an efficient national identity management system has made it difficult for Nigerians, especially those in the bottom of the pyramid, to benefit from government programs.





Jonathan stated this on Thursday, in Abuja during the presidential launch and unveiling of the National identity card.He lamented that a number of government programs which the country ought to have effectively implemented for the benefit of Nigerians could not be achieved owing to credibility of the data management processes.For instance, he listed the abuse of the fuel subsidy program, which according to him, was meant to reduce the cost of transportation for Nigerians as well as make life more meaningful for the ordinary people as one of the disadvantage of not having an efficient national identity management system.



The president regretted that it was unfortunate that after spending billions of naira annually in fuel subsidy payment, majority of Nigerians don’t get to enjoy the subsidy owing to the fact that about sixty per cent of such funds are smuggled out of the country.



He lamented that those who smuggled these subsidy funds out of the country are the ones who turn around to instigate Nigerians against the government.He said, “I’m particularly pleased about National Identity Management Commission because a number of things we are suppose to do well as a nation, we are not doing well.“And sometimes we blame government because of the failure of the system and the credibility of the process.“If you take the issue of subsidy of transport, what we do is subsidizing hydrocarbon, it does not go to the ordinary people. ‎Government spends huge some of money, hundreds of billions of Naira every year in the budget, ask the National Assembly.



“We are thinking about how do we subsidize transport of the person going to school, the person going to the market, the person moving from Lagos to Enugu or Lagos to Kano. Not paying subsidy that 60 per cent of that will be smuggled out of the country.“And those who make the money will come and use that money to induce the people suffering to even riot against government.”He also said it was difficult to effectively replicate the amnesty program in the Niger Delta region in the North when the insecurity crisis begun few years ago owing to lack of accurate data of those affected by the crisis.



source: nigerianeye