Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has defended the N8,000 palliative the Federal Government is proposing to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy among the poor.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, he said N8,000 is a substantial amount for many impoverished families who do not usually receive such in a month.
He recalled how many families benefited from the previously distributed N5,000 as palliatives, arguing that the current move is justifiable.
“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.”
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“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. So, the only thing is that let us identify those families.”
President Bola Tinubu had ordered a review of the N8,000 palliatives following nationwide outrage.
In a statement on Friday, Adewole Adebayo, Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the 2023 elections, described the N8000 palliatives as worthless.
He noted that throwing money at the people the way the government was planning to do would only bring about inflation where too much money would be chasing too few goods.
“It appears the government is not aware of what we call monetary neutrality. When you have no food, no means of transportation, and no medicare, throwing money at you is not going to increase the number of service providers. It is not going to increase the value of real goods in the market. What it is going to do is that there would be wastage because the money will not be well used. When the money gets to the end users, it becomes useless to them in the real terms because they don’t have the goods to chase with the money. In the end, it may cause a little bit of inflation,” he said.
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