Yemi Faronbi, a former ambassador to the Philippines, and Abdulwaheed Akintayo, a lawmaker, have called for the database to be used to distribute palliatives.

The duo stated this in separate interviews on Thursday in Ibadan in reaction to a recent statement credited to the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi.

Mr Akanbi, while distributing grains and cash to the aged and the vulnerable in Iwo on April 1, said traditional rulers were in the best position to distribute palliatives to Nigerians on behalf of the federal government.

“Traditional rulers serve as a link between the government and the people,” he said, adding that the underprivileged were not feeling many of the federal government’s post-fuel subsidy removal interventions.

Mr Faronbi, however, said the best option for the government was to use the database to distribute palliatives rather than go through the traditional rulers.

“What those in authority should think of doing is working out a database where all Nigerians, especially the poorest of the poor, can be captured and palliatives distributed to them accordingly,” he said.

However, Mr Faronbi, a former general manager of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Ibadan, said this should be a short-term measure.

“I feel that Oluwo believes that the traditional rulers know people in and out, but in a country as large as Nigeria, how many traditional rulers will the government contact? Nigeria is a multi-ethnic society, from the North to the South, from the East to the West. And so, the traditional means of distributing palliatives that works for a particular area may not be applicable to another,” he said.

Mr Akintayo, a member of the Oyo House of Assembly, said unless there was a constitutional provision, traditional rulers might not be able to distribute palliatives on behalf of the government.

“Maybe Oluwo felt that certain things were not working properly and that traditional rulers might be the best to take up the responsibility. In Oyo state, the palliatives distributed recently were properly done, to the best of my knowledge, as there was no complaint from anybody,” he said.

Although the lawmaker said he was not, in any way, against traditional rulers assuming constitutional roles, he stated that such roles must be deliberated upon, passed as a bill, and assented to by the executive branch before they become operational.

(NAN)