President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, says the recently announced N5billion palliative package per state by the Federal Government (FG) would equate to a mere N1500 per person when distributed among the vast number of over 133 million Nigerians.
While speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Ajaero emphasized that a total of N185 billion would lack significant impact when divided among the 133 million individuals who are experiencing multidimensional poverty, based on data he sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Labour leader further argued that even if the funds were converted into the value of six trailers filled with rice, the resulting amount would still be inadequate, amounting to less than a cup of rice per person when shared.
According to him, 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.
