The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has said the N5 billion approved as palliative for each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to cushion fuel subsidy removal won’t amount to N1,500 per person.
OsunDailyNG reports that the NLC boss, during Friday’s episode of Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the amount is not close to sufficient considering the statistic of the number of poor people in the country.
He said statistics have proven that about 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor in the country, so N185 billion can’t do much for them.
Ajaero argued that it is not even clear if the money is a palliative or a loan, but given that it is totally a palliative package, it’s still not enough.
He submitted, “But whichever might be the case, let’s assume that it is palliative; you would agree that it is difficult to feel the impact of such an amount at a time like this.
“The [National] Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has come out to say that over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor. You start to wonder about the impact of N185 billion to 133 million people by their admittance.
“And from the time this report was released and now, in fact, the first increase in the pump price of petroleum products and the last one, moved a lot of people from the borderline to a very high level of poverty.
“Now, if you calculate it, you will discover that this will not translate to N1,500 per person, and you ask: is that the impact? Is that really what we want to achieve? Let’s assume it’s a loan. What is really going to happen? Is it garbage in, garbage out?
“If it is N5 billion, I think the organised labour would want anybody to do the calculation and tell us how it is going to impact Nigerians on what is happening currently. If it is a loan then it is too bad.”
