The N5 billion palliative package promised by the federal government for each state won’t equal N1500 per person when distributed among the more than 133 million multifacetedly impoverished Nigerians, according to Joe Ajero, president of the Nigerian Labour Congress.
In an interview with Politics Today on Channels Television on Friday, Ajero stated that statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor, and that there was no way that N185 billion would have any significant impact when distributed among them.
The head of the labour union insisted that even if the money were equivalent to six trailers of rice, it wouldn’t be enough to buy each person one cup of rice.
According to him, more Nigerians crossed over and entered a very high level of poverty between the first and most recent increases in the price of petrol at the pump.
“Let’s imagine it’s a palliative rather than a loan; you’ll agree that it’s challenging to feel the impact of such a quantity now that the Bureau of Statistics has reported that more than 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.
You begin to consider how N185 billion, which they concede, will affect 133 million people who are multifacetedly impoverished.
“In fact, many people shifted from the edge of poverty to a very high level of poverty between the first increase in the price of petrol at the pump and the most recent one. If you add that up, you’ll find that it doesn’t come to N1500 per person, so you have to wonder if that’s the impact we’re going for,” he added.
