Tinubu’s First 6 Months: FG, States Spend Hugely, Citizenry Not Feeling Impact

IN the last six months, the three tiers of government- Federal, States and Local Councils, have shared N5.57 trillion as allocation from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, according to Saturday Vanguard’s checks.

Within the period, which is President Bola Tinubu’s first six months in office, having assumed power on May 29, 2023, the Federal Government raked in N2.097 trillion as allocation; the 36 states got N1.8285 trillion; the 774 LGAs received N1.346 trillion; and the oil-producing states cornered an additional N298.648 billion as 13 per cent derivation.

Worsening hardship

However, the citizenry, across the country, are still awaiting the impact of the humongous funds received and expended by the various governments as hardship bites harder and human development indices plummet amid rising wave of insecurity.

On the heels of sustained spike in food prices, Nigeria recorded the 10th consecutive rise in inflation rate in October with the figure hitting 27.33 per cent from 26.72 per cent it recorded in September.

Poor human development indices

As of Thursday night, data from the Worldometer put Nigeria’s population at 226.030 million with a life expectancy of 53.89 years; infant mortality (70.6 out of 1000 live births); and Under-five mortality (109 out of 1000 live births).

Data from the World Health Organization, WHO, shows Nigeria as having an estimated maternal mortality ratio of 917 deaths per 100,000 live births, making it the fourth highest globally.

Rising poverty

The Nigeria Government, after its Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, Survey, reported that 63 per cent of persons living in Nigeria, 133 million, were multi-dimensionally poor.

As of June 2023, the World Poverty Clock reported 71million Nigerians as being extremely poor. The NBS is yet to release the MPI result for 2023. Analysts estimate the number of multidimensionally poor Nigerians currently to be over 140 million.

Out-of-school children menace

In the last six months, little or nothing has been achieved in the fight to ensure that all children of school age in Nigeria are in classrooms.

The Federal Government said Nigeria accounted for 12.4 percent of out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Dr Hamid Boboye, said that Nigeria needed additional 20,000 schools and 907,769 classrooms to absorb the growing number of out-of-school children.

It is to be seen if things will fare better for Nigerians in the months ahead.

How, FG, States,LGAs shared N5.57 trillion

In May 2023, N786.161 billion was shared.

In June, N907.054 billion was shared.

In July, N966.110 billion was shared.

In August, N1.101 trillion was shared.

In September N903.480 billion shared.

In October, N906.955 billion was shared

As of the time of filing this report, the allocation for November 2023 has not been announced.

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