Boma Achenimie 
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Minister, Nyesom Wike on Tuesday said that his administration has not yet decided on how to use the N5 billion palliative fund from the Federal Government.
The FCT Minister stated this while pointing out that his administration may take into account food and transportation assistance, adding that work was being done to restore urban mass transit to the FCT in order to lessen passengers’ hardship.
Rising from a closed-door meeting with contractors overseeing multiple projects in the FCT, Wike said, “We are yet to decide on what to do with the ₦2billion palliative.
“We have not chosen any area yet. Are we going to concentrate on food, we are thinking that the issue of transportation is very very important, particularly the urban mass transit.
“People would like to have easy transportation to go to where they want to go, and if you give them rice and they eat the rice today, what about transportation tomorrow?
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“So, we have not come up with what actually we are going to use the money for, but I believe food support and transportation is very key,” Wike said.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had two weeks ago announced a $5 billion palliative for each state of the federation, including the FCT to lessen the effects of the elimination of the petrol subsidy.
While waiting for the remaining N3 billion, several state governments have acknowledged getting $2 billion of the total.
Wike said that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had not previously been included in the distribution of the N5 billion palliative monies until he sent a message to President Bola Tinubu alerting him of the change.
Although he noted that other states had already received $2 billion, he said that President Tinubu had approved the sum and expressed optimism that the FCTA would soon receive its portion as well.