Daniel Bwala, an aide to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general election, Atiku Abubakar, has weighed in on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) reaction to the N5bn palliative to be given to each state.
Bellnews recalls that the NLC, while reacting to the palliative, opined that state governors could not be trusted with such a large amount of money, adding that no Committee was established to ensure the successful implementation of the initiative.
The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the Federal Government was about sharing N2,000 and a cup of rice with poor people across the country.
Ajaero said, “N5bn multiplied by 36 states is going to give you N180bn. So if you divide that with the official figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, which says that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor, and calculate it, you will get about N2,000 each for those who are poor.
“That is the official statistics of the government, but you and I know that the actual figure is more than that. So is that what to celebrate? And then, five trucks or there about, of rice to a state. The poor people of these states cannot get one cup of rice. It will not go around.
Even if you pick them from the poverty bracket, it will be difficult for them to get one cup of rice.
Is that the best we can do? Is that the best approach to governance? So do we look at our people as people we should give one cup of rice and N2,000? Is that palliative?”
Reacting to the NLC’s stance via a Twitter post, Bwala stated that organised labour had demystified the N5bn palliative.
According to him, “The organised labour has demystified the so-called 5 billion naira FGN gave to states; first, the FGN said it was a palliative, and they are now saying it is a loan. Organize labour further did their arithmetical calculations and arrived at a shameful conclusion that the so-called 5 billion naira comes down to 1500 per person. How much is the cost of food items in the market?”