Palliative N5bn spending won’t end poverty, claims NLC

When distributed among the more than 133 million multifacetedly impoverished Nigerians, the N5 billion palliative package offered by the federal government won’t equal N1500 per individual, according to Joe Ajero, president of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

Ajero stated this on Friday during an interview on the Politics Today programme on Channels Television. Citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics, he claimed that N185 billion could not possibly make a difference for the 133 million multifacetedly impoverished Nigerians.

The leader of the labour union insisted that even if the money were translated to the equivalent of six trailers of rice, it would not equal one cup of rice for each person.

He continued by saying that more Nigerians had crossed the line into extreme poverty between the first and most recent increases in the price of petrol at the pump.

You will agree that it is impossible to feel the impact of such a number at a time like this when the Bureau of Statistics has come forward and stated that over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor. Let’s suppose that it is a palliative and not a loan.

“You begin to question the effect of N185 billion on 133 million people by their own, who are multifacetedly poor.

“In fact, many people shifted from the edge of poverty to a very high level of poverty between the first and most recent increases in the price of petrol at the pump. If you add that up and do the maths, you’ll find that it doesn’t come to N1500 per person, and you’ll wonder if that’s the impact we want to make’, he said.