N5bn palliative won’t amount to anything for poor Nigerians - NLC

The Nigerian Labour Congress has expressed their displeasure at the palliative package been distributed by the federal government in a bid to cushion the hardship facing citizens.

President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Joe Ajero, was of the view that the N5bn palliative package per state won’t amount to N1500 per person when shared among over 133 million Nigerians.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television show, Politics Today on Friday, Ajero noted that there was no way N185 billion would be impactful when shared among millions of Nigerians who are seen as multi-dimensionally poor.

He argued that even if the funds were converted to the value of six trailers of rice, it wouldn’t amount to a cup of rice per individual when shared.

“Let us assume that it is a palliative and not a loan, you will agree that it is difficult to feel the impact of such an amount at a time like this when the Bureau of Statistics has come up to say that over 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.

“You start to wonder about the impact of N185bn to 133 million people by their admittance, who are multi-dimensionally poor.

“In fact, from the first increase in pump price of petrol and the last one, a lot of people moved from the borderline to a very high level of poverty. If you calculate and do an arithmetic on that, you will discover that it won’t amount to N1500 per person and you ask if that’s the impact that we want to achieve,” he said.