Worried by the excruciating impact of the Federal government removal of fuel subsidy in the country, residents of Kano have cried out for urgent help from the state government.

The residents who lamented the untold hardship occasioned by increase in pump price, especially on their businesses and cost of living however disappointed over the continue deafening silence on the part of Kano state government on palliative measures to ease the current reality.

The concern citizens demanding for urgent introduction of government policies and measures that would mitigate the resultant effect of the removal of subsidy on fuel especially on cost of foods, transportation, school fees and other related costs.

The National Economic Council (NEC) in June set up a ad-hoc committee on how to alleviate the suffering faced by Nigerians following the removal of fuel subsidy. The Federal government also advised the state Governors to urgently device measures to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal having deployed more resources to the states.

Residents are even more agitated with the economic hardship given the enormous resources in the disposal of the state governments. For instance, the three tiers of government in July shared the some of N907,054 billion, the highest allocation since January, 2023.

The June FAAC has increased of 120,893 billion compared to N786,161 billion shared for the month of May, 2023. With the increased at sight, many state governments, including Kano are yet to make any move to ameliorate the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.

A resident who identified himself as Malam Ibrahim Yakubu told The Guardian that removal of fuel subsidy has made life more difficult for him and his large family.

Yakubu, a civil servant with Kano state government and father of six said he find it extremely difficult to sustain his responsibility with the monthly salary owing to high cost of foods. Besides, Yakubu revealed that he is still struggling to meeting daily transport fare for his children.

The situation is not different with Aminu Alhassan, an auto-mobile technician who complained drastic drop in the number of customers. The 36 years old Alhassan told our correspondent that several vehicle owners have abandoned their vehicles at home because of high cost of fuel.

Yahaya Abubakar, a public school’s teacher, who also shared ugly experience since the withdrawal of subsidy confessed that he find it hardly to report to his duty post five days a week considering the hard reality of economy. Worsen still, Abubakar narrated that he mostly discourage some occasions to report to work because of absence of students who could not afford transport fare to school.

Reacting however, Commissioner for Information in Kano, Malam Halilu Baba Dantiye disclosed that several policies and programs designed to ease the current hard time are under way in Kano. Although, Baba Dantiye emphasized the plan of the present administration to reactivate and adopt development programs of former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to bring succor to the people.

Responding on how soon the envisaged government programs will come on stream, the commissioner for Information revealed that some of the plans would be unveiled as soon as possible while government would take time to design and actualize others.

” Well, you may want to ignore the numenclature palliative because this government has several policies and programs in place to cater for welfare of our people. Remember this government is not new to governance because it is an offshoot of Kwankwaso’s administration which has initiated so many social programs and policies.

“We are going to revive and expand these programmes. For instance, there were 26 entrepreneurship centres built by the Kwankwaso administration that were shut down by past government. We will reopen them to train our youths and women in different entrepreneurship skills and at the end, we will give them starter packs to start up their businesses and become self-reliant.

“We would also revive the 62 high-powered buses bought by the Kwankwaso administration for the Girl Child initiative. All have been grounded. This will be revived for both boys and girls to ease challenges associated with transportation of the students. For the farmers, we will give out fertilisers directly to them through the 447 political ward”. Dantiye assured.