NLC, the Nigerian Labour Congress, has requested that the federal government reconsider the proposed N8,000 to 12 million home palliative care programme.
President Bola Tinubu requested the Senate last week to accept a $800 million borrowing request.
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The federal government proposes to transfer N8,000 per month to 12 million poor and low-income households during a six-month period, with a multiplier effect of over 60 million people.
President Tinubu stated that the palliative would help to mitigate the impact of the loss of petrol subsidies on the underprivileged masses.
However, in a statement issued on Tuesday, NLC President Joe Ajaero stated that the federal government has refused to conduct meaningful “stakeholder consultation.”
“The proposal to pay N8,000 to each of Nigeria’s so-called 12 million poorest households for a six-month period insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and steadfast faith in social dialogue, which the government may have alluded to, albeit pretentiously.”
“The additional proposal to pay N70 billion to national assembly members and N36 billion to the judiciary is the most insensitive, reckless, and brazen diversion of our collective patrimony into the pockets of public officers whose sworn responsibility it is to protect our nation’s treasury.”
“We believe this may amount to hush money and outright bribery of the other branches of government to allow the aberration to occur.”
“It is unconscionable that a government that has imposed so much hardship on the people in less than two months will make a proposal that clearly rewards the rich in public office at the expense of the poor.”
“What this means is that the government has been looking for ways to rob the very poor Nigerians so that the rich can get richer.”
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“If the government does not want to stop these fortuitous actions that it is pursuing in the name of palliatives,” the NLC stated.
“We will be forced to constructively review our engagement with the government on this vexing issue and take matters into our own hands.”
