Osita Chidoka, former Minister of Aviation has challenged President Bola Tinubu to take action regarding the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu over the 2023 general elections.
Chidoka while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on Monday, June 26, 2023, asked the president to remove Yakubu the same way he sacked the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
“For the kind of uproar that the election caused, the way he went after the CBN governor is the way I think he should have set up a panel to look into INEC,” the PDP chieftain said.
“It would have been totally unimportant if he faced what I considered the critical issues about Nigerians making their choices.”
Chidoka also asked Tinubu to remove charges on bank transfers saying the banks enrich themselves with the charges.
He argued that the removal of the transfer charges could have been one of the immediate measures to be put in place to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal.
He said, “We need to think beyond politics. When he (Tinubu) took a decision to remove fuel subsidy and the fuel price rose from 100 and something naira to 500 and something naira in a day”.
“What are the immediate measures that can be taken to make sure there is more cash in the pockets of people who go to work every day?
“If I was thinking with him, I would have said immediately: remove the charges for bank transfers in Nigeria, the N26 and the N56 cut it immediately.
“That money goes to the banks and they are just enriching themselves or make a flat rate of once a month, you can charge N100 for IT (Information Technology) support. So, that puts more money in the hands of people.
Chidoka added that the minimum wage in the country needed to rise from the current rate of N30,000 to reflect the country’s economic realities.
