Labour, experts fault Tinubu’s N8,000 transfer to poor families

By Abbas Musa
Kanempress
15th July 2023

The organised labour and some economists in Nigeria have faulted the plan by Government to transfer N8,000 into the accounts of 12 million vulnerable and poor citizens over the next six months to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol.

The Senate had on Thursday approved the request of President Bola Tinubu to borrow $800m loan from the World Bank.

The lawmakers also amended the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act for the provision for N500bn as palliatives to curb the effects of petrol subsidy removal on poor Nigerians.

President Tinubu requested the two approvals in letters read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary.

President Tinubu, said the $800m loan will be used to cater for the welfare of the vulnerable and poor households under the National Safety Net Programme, while the sum of N8,000 will be transferred monthly to the bank accounts of 12 million poor and low income households for six months.

The effects of the removal of subsidy led to many Nigerians faced with increasing costs of living while some households are in extreme poverty.

The subsidy removal according to President Tinubu would end subsidy payment to fuel importers and marketers.

The pump price of petrol was immediately increased by marketers to N500 per litre from N185 with the attendant rise in the cost of transportation, food and other goods and services.

The Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, Lagos chapter, Mrs Funmi Sessi, described the Federal Government’s plan as a drop of water in the ocean.

Sessi said, “Looking at the money and the effect of the subsidy removal that has escalated the prices of everything in the market, I wonder what the N8,000 can do for a family in a month.

“I wonder what it can buy and the services it can render for 30 days; N8,000 cannot take care of a family for a week; it is not possible; it is going to be like a drop of water in the ocean.

“We do not know how the government is going to get clarity for those who will require it the most; how it will identify those who are most affected, and how the palliatives will get to those actually in need.

“Labour is asking for a pay rise; for those in abject poverty, we believe the government can do better for them.”

The labour leader charged the President to provide facilities and infrastructure to make Nigerians independent in order to provide for themselves and their families rather than the palliative of N8,000.

“It should profile those who want to do various agricultural activities, give them the resources and mobilise them, so that they can also become employers of labour,” she said.

President Tinubu had in a request to the National Assembly said his government would cater for the welfare of vulnerable and poor households in Nigeria under the National Safety Net Programme.

Under the plan, the sum of N8,000 would be transferred digitally on a monthly basis to the accounts of 12 million poor and low income households for for six months.

The money is expected to stimulate economic activities in the informal sector and improve the standard of living in the beneficiaries’ households.