The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has kicked against the N5 billion per state palliative package recently released by the federal government to states, aimed at alleviating the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, asserted that the benefits from these packages would predominantly favor the state governors, leaving the citizens with meager assistance.
He said that based on what the government provided, poor people across the country would get N2,000 and a cup of rice each.
Ajaero pointed out that Nigerians could not trust the state governors to pay minimum wage, questioning why they should be charged with the implementation of the initiative.
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He said, “N5bn multiplied by 36 states will give you N180bn. So, if you divide that with the official figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, which says that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor, and calculate it, you will get about N2,000 each for those poor.
“That is the government’s official statistics, but you and I know the figure is more than that. So, is that what to celebrate? And then, five trucks or about, of rice to a state. The poor people of these states cannot get one cup of rice. It will not go around.
“Even if you pick them from the poverty bracket, it will be difficult for them to get one cup of rice. Is that the best we can do? Is that the best approach to governance? So, do we look at our people as people we should give one cup of rice and N2,000? Is that palliative?”
As part of measures to reduce the economic effects of the subsidy removal, the federal government on Thursday announced a N5bn palliative for each state in the country.
