Abdullahi Sule: N8000 palliative is a lot of money to many poor families

Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa state, says N8000 is “a lot” to many households in the country.

The governor spoke in an interview with Channels TV on Friday.

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Last week, President Bola Tinubu asked the national assembly to approve an $800 million loan to alleviate the hardship induced by the removal of subsidy on petrol.

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Tinubu had said 12 million households would receive N8000 monthly from the loan sourced from the World Bank.

Although the president later ordered a review of the proposed scheme, the plan continues to stir criticism from many Nigerians who condemned the conditional cash transfer as unsustainable.

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Adding his voice to the debate, Sule said the proposed amount is significant to “so many other people who are from very poor families”.

The governor said the task of the government is to identify these families.

“We were sharing only N5000 — and believe me, there were so many people that were waiting for that N5000 every month,” Sule said.

“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, N8000 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 N8000 every month. So, the only thing is that let us identify those families.”

Meanwhile, the National Economic Council (NEC), on Thursday, proposed ways of cushioning the impact of petroleum subsidy removal on Nigerians.

The council’s proposal includes a review of minimum wage, single-digit interest rates loans for small businesses and the distribution of food items and fertilisers, among others.