THE governor of Nasarawa state, Abdullahi Sule, has described the proposed N8,000 palliative by the Federal government as “a lot of money” to many poor Nigerians.
Sule said this in an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, July 21.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had proposed a cash transfer of N8,000 to 12 million poor households (60 million Nigerians) in Nigeria for a period of six months to cushion the harsh effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.
The initiative came under attack from many individuals and groups, who regarded it as too small to cushion the harsh results of the subsidy removal.
Tinubu bowed to pressure on Tuesday, July 18, ordering the review of the proposed scheme.
Reacting to the development, Sule insisted that the proposed N8,000 would help in reducing the impact of the subsidy removal.
“We were sharing only N5,000 and, believe me, there were so many people that were waiting for that N5,000 every month. Indeed there were some communities that were able to do some kind of contributions and they were able to do a lot in their various communities.
“So, N8,000 may not be so much money to some people, but it is a lot to so many other people who are from very poor families that don’t see N8,000 every month. The only thing is that let us identify those families,” Sule said.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M