The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC has faulted Federal Government’s palliative to States, saying it cannot solve the problem of poverty in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels Television on Friday, President of NLC, Comrade Joe Ajero, said the N5 billion palliative per State which was announced by the Federal Government cannot cannot amount to N1500 per person when distributed among 133 million persons.
According to him, about 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.
He said, statistics made available to him from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that about 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor and with a grand total of N185 billion given to 36 States of the Federation to be shared among them will amount to nothing.
The Labour Union leader maintained 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.
He added that from the time of the first increment of pump price for petroleum to the last one, more Nigerians had gone beyond the borderline and had slid into a very high level of poverty.
“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 N185 billion 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.
