5bn will not solve poverty – NLC tells FG

Joe Ajaero,the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), has stated out that the N5 billion palliative package per state recently announced by the Federal Government would only amount to N1500 per person for the over 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty.

Ajero highlighted this during an interview on the Politics Today show on Channels Television on Friday.

The NLC president emphasized that dividing a total of N185 billion among 133 million people would have little impact, referring to data he obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Ajaero further argued that even converting the funds into six trailers filled with rice would still be insufficient, as it would only be equivalent to less than a cup of rice per person when distributed.

Additionally, he pointed out that the progression in petroleum pump price increments over time has led to an increased number of Nigerians falling beyond the poverty threshold and entering a state of severe 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 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.