N5bn palliative won’t solve poverty, says NLC

• Ajero’s remarks were made during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today show
• He underscores that even if the funds were converted to the value of six trailers of rice, the resulting amount per person would still be insufficient, resembling less than a cup of rice
  

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Joe Ajero, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, has highlighted that the recently announced N5 billion palliative package per state by the Federal Government would equate to a mere N1500 per person when distributed among the vast number of over 133 million Nigerians experiencing multidimensional poverty.

In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today show on Friday, Ajero 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 leader of the Labour Union 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.

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.