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Tag: Poor Nigerians

  • Labour rejects proposed fuel hike as Senate says no budgetary allocation for N5000 stipend for 40m poor Nigerians

    Labour rejects proposed fuel hike as Senate says no budgetary allocation for N5000 stipend for 40m poor Nigerians

    The Nigeria Labour Congress has rejected the proposed hike in pump price of fuel to N340 per litre from 2022.

    It warned that an increase in the price of petrol will lead to hyper-inflation and an astronomical rise in the cost of goods and services.

    Besides, the trade union said talks over petrol subsidy with the government was inconclusive.

    The NLC in a statement by its President Ayuba Wabba, restated its rejection of deregulation based on an import-driven model.

    The statement reads in part: “The response of the Nigeria Labour Congress is that what we are hearing is the conversation of the Federal government with neo-liberal international monetary institutions.

    “The conversation between the government and the people of Nigeria, especially workers under the auspices of the trade union movement on the matter of fuel subsidy, was adjourned sine die so many months ago.

    “Given the nationwide panic that has trailed the disclosure of the monologue within the corridors of government and foreign interests, the Nigeria Labour Congress wishes to posit that it continues to maintain its rejection of deregulation based on import driven model.

    “It is difficult to convince Nigerian workers why our dear country is the only country among the OPEC member countries that cannot produce its own refined petroleum products and thus adopts the neo-liberal import production model of refined petroleum products.

    “We wish to reiterate our persuasion that the only benefit of deregulation based on the import-driven model is that Nigerian consumers will infinitely continue to pay high prices for refined petroleum products.

    “This situation will definitely be compounded by the astronomical devaluation of the naira, which currently goes for N560 to 1US$ in the parallel market.”

    NLC believes that any attempt to compare the price of petrol in Nigeria to other countries would be set on a faulty premise.

    It said such a comparison would be akin to comparing apples to mangoes.

    NLC added: “The contemplation by the government to increase the price of petrol by more than 200 per cent is a perfect recipe for an aggravated pile of hyper-inflation and astronomical increase in the price of goods and services.

    “This will open a wide door to unintended social consequences such as degeneration of the current insecurity crises and possibly citizens’ revolt. This is not an outcome that any sane Nigeria wishes for.

    “The argument that the complete surrender of the price of petrol to market forces would normalise the curve of demand and supply as is being wrongly attributed to the current market realities with cooking gas, diesel and kerosene is very obtuse.

    “The truth is that these commodities which Nigeria can easily produce have been priced out of the reach of most Nigerian families with the majority of our people resorting to tree felling and charcoal for their energy needs.

    “Finally, we wish to warn that the bait by the government to pay 40 million Nigerians N5000 as a palliative to cushion the effect of the astronomical increase in the price of petrol is comical, to say the least.

    “The total amount involved in this queer initiative is far more than the money government claims to spend currently on fuel subsidy.

    “Apart from our concerns on the transparency of the disbursement given previous experiences with such schemes, we are wondering if the government is not trying to rob Nigerians to pay Nigerians? Why pay me N5000 and then subject me to perpetual suffering?”

    According to the Congress, the government’s decision to remove the petrol subsidy is “cloudy”.

    “Clearly, government thoughts on the so-called removal of fuel subsidy is cloudy and appears to be a ‘penny wise-pound foolish’ gamble.

    “It is clear that the palliative offered by the government will not cure the cancer that will befall the mass of our people who suffer the double jeopardy of hype-inflation while their salaries remain fixed.

    “As we had done several times, we call on the Federal Government to consider various options that can help Nigeria navigate out of the quagmire constructed by the failure of successive governments to embrace developmental governance and accountable leadership. Some of the viable options that can help include:

    “Insulate the domestic consumers from the market pressure brought about by the free fall of the naira by arranging with contiguous refineries not far from Nigeria to swap crude oil with refined petroleum products;

    “Accelerate work on the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s four major refineries which are all currently operating at near-zero installed capacity; and

    “Establish empirical data on the quantity of refined petroleum products consumed daily by Nigerians.

    “It is unfortunate that this record remains a myth and a huge crater for all manner of official sleaze and leakages in the downstream petroleum sub-sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.”

     

    No budgetary allocation for N5000 stipend for 40m poor Nigerians – Senate

    Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Finance has said there is no provision for monthly N5000 transport grant to 40 million poor Nigerians in the 2022 budget currently being considered by the National Assembly.

    Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Adeola Olamilekan Solomon, said the 2022 budget proposal contains fuel subsidy, but no provision for the proposed N5000 transport grant, which amounts to N2.4 trillion annually.

    Solomon stated this while speaking with newsmen after presenting his panel’s report on 2022 budget to the Appropriations Committee. He said before the executive could embark on such intervention, a proposal to that effect must be sent to the National Assembly for approval.

    “The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning was quoted to have said that 40 million Nigerians would be paid N5000 as transportation allowance in lieu of the fuel subsidy.

    I don’t want to go into details for now. I believe that if such proposal is to come to pass, a document to that effect must be sent to National Assembly for us to see how possible it is and how do we identify the 40 million Nigerians that are going to benefit.

    There are still a lot of issues to be deliberated upon and looked into if eventually this will come to pass. How do we raise this money to pay these 40 million Nigerians because I know that even the federal government revenues are from this so-called oil and other sources.

    We don’t have anywhere in the budget where 40 million Nigerians will collect N5000 monthly as transportation allowance totaling N2.4 trillion.

    I know that there must be a budgetary provison for this for us (National Assembly) to consider. That is why I said it is still a news out there until it is formally sent to the National Assembly for either a virement to the budget or reordering of the budget.”

  • SERAP sues FG, seeks details of ‘payment of N729bn to poor Nigerians’

    SERAP sues FG, seeks details of ‘payment of N729bn to poor Nigerians’

    Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit asking the Federal High Court in Lagos “to compel the Federal Government to disclose details of proposed payments of N729bn to 24.3 million poor Nigerians, including the mechanisms and logistics for the payments, list of beneficiaries, and how they have been selected, and whether the payments will be made in cash or through Bank Verification Numbers or other means.”

    SERAP is also seeking “an order directing and compelling the Federal Government to explain the rationale for paying N5,000 to 24.3 million poor Nigerians for six months, which translates to five-percent of the country’s budget of N13.6 trillion for 2021.”

    The suit followed SERAP’s Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Ms Sadia Umar-Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disasters Management and Social Development, stating that: “Disclosing the details of beneficiaries and selection criteria, as well as the payment plan would promote transparency and accountability, and remove the risks of mismanagement and diversion of public funds.”

    In the suit number FHC/L/CS/853/2021 filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, SERAP is also seeking: “an order directing and compelling the Federal Government to clarify whether the proposed payment to poor Nigerians is part of the N5.6 trillion budget deficit.”

    In the suit filed against Ms Sadia Umar-Farouk, SERAP is arguing that “Providing support and assistance to poor Nigerians is a human rights obligation but the programme to spend five-percent of the 2021 budget, which is mostly based on deficit and borrowing, requires anti-corruption safeguards to ensure the payments go directly to the intended beneficiaries, and that public funds are not mismanaged or diverted.”

    According to SERAP: “The Nigerian Constitution of 1999 [as amended], UN Convention against Corruption, and African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party require the government to set the highest standards of transparency, accountability and probity in programmes that it oversees.”

    SERAP is also arguing that “The government has a responsibility to ensure that these requirements and other anti-corruption controls are fully implemented and monitored, and that the payments are justified in light of the huge budget deficit and borrowing, and whether there are better ways to spend N729bn to support poor Nigerians.”

    According to SERAP: “The Federal Government has repeatedly failed to ensure transparency and accountability in the spending of public wealth and resources.”

    The suit filed last week on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Opeyemi Owolabi, read in part: “Transparency and accountability in the programme would improve public trust, and allow Nigerians to track and monitor its implementation, and to assess if the programme is justified, as well as to hold authorities to account in cases of diversion, mismanagement and corruption.”

    “Obedience to the rule of law by all citizens but more particularly those who publicly took oath of office to protect and preserve the constitution is a desideratum to good governance and respect for the rule of law. In a democratic society, this is meant to be a norm; it is an apostasy for government to ignore the provisions of the law and the necessary rules to regulate matters”

    “The right to truth allows Nigerians to gain access to information essential to the fight against corruption. This is in line with the Government’s anti-corruption strategy of citizen involvement in the fight against corruption. As a positive development strategy, access to information will foster development of democratic institutions in Nigeria.”

    “Democracy cannot flourish in the absence of citizen’s access to information. Public officers are mere custodians of public records. The citizenry is entitled to know how the common wealth is being utilized, managed and administered. This right to know will no doubt help in promoting a transparent democracy, good governance and public accountability.”

    No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.

  • Additional 20 million Nigerians to become poor by 2022 – World Bank

    Additional 20 million Nigerians to become poor by 2022 – World Bank

    The World Bank dropped a bombshell on Thursday, reporting that an additional 20 million Nigerians are likely to join the ranks of the poor in 2022, with the absence of measures to mitigate the twin impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the drop in crude oil prices.

    The global bank added that the pandemic is disproportionately affecting the poor and most vulnerable, particularly women, and called for pragmatic measures to stem the tide.

    The World Bank in its Nigeria Development Update (NDU) noted that food insecurity has increased substantially, adding that economic precariousness was on the rise because unemployed workers have migrated to the low-productivity agricultural sector.

    According to the bank, an average Nigerian will in the next three years see a reversal of decades of economic growth and the country could enter its deepest recession since the 1980s.

    The Report argues that this path could be avoided if progress in the current reforms is sustained and the right mix of policy measures quickly implemented

    While acknowledging measures taken by the government since April, including the efforts to harmonise exchange rates, introduce a market-based pricing mechanism for gasoline, adjust electricity tariffs to more cost-reflective levels, and reduce non-essential expenditures and redirect resources towards the COVID-19 response, it said there is need for a greater policy response to the economic crisis.

    It also highlights the greater transparency in the oil and gas sector and public debt as essential steps for a resilient recovery.

    The World Bank’s Lead Economist for Nigeria and co-author of the report, Marco Hernandez said: ‘Nigeria can build on its reform momentum to contain the spread of COVID-19, stimulate the economy, and enable the private sector to be the engine of growth and job creation.

    ‘It can also redirect public spending from subsidies that benefit the rich towards investments in Nigeria’s people and youth in particular, and lay foundations for a strong recovery to help make progress towards lifting 100 million people out of poverty.’

    The report titled “Rising to the Challenge: Nigeria’s COVID response” takes stock on the recently implemented reforms and proposes policy options to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and foster a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive recovery.

    The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, while speaking on the Report said Nigeria is at a critical historical juncture, with a choice to make.

    He added that ‘Nigeria can choose to break decisively from business-as-usual, and rise to its considerable potential by sustaining the bold reforms that have been taken thus far and going even further and with an even greater sense of urgency to promote faster and more inclusive economic growth.’

    The latest World Bank NDU projects that the economy could shrink up to four per cent in 2020 following the twin shocks of COVID-19 and low oil prices.

    It said the pace of recovery in 2021 and beyond remains highly uncertain and subject to the pace of reforms.

    Looking ahead, the Bank in the Report discusses policy options in five areas that would help mitigate the effects of the crisis and support Nigeria’s recovery.

    The areas are managing the domestic spread of COVID-19 until a vaccine is available for distribution; enhancing macroeconomic management to boost investor confidence; safeguarding and mobilizing revenues; reprioritizing public spending to protect critical development expenditures, and supporting economic activity and access to basic services and providing relief for poor and vulnerable communities.

  • Buhari, APC ‘used’ Almajiris, other poor Nigerians to grab power in 2015, dump them in COVID-19 crisis – PDP

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have completely betrayed the Almajiris and other downtrodden, poor and vulnerable Nigerians after using them to grab power in 2015.

    The party asserted that the APC and its government had continued to show their true colours, especially as manifested in the neglect and dehumanizing treatment they had meted out on poor and vulnerable Nigerians since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

    The PDP, in a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary, noted that APC’s disdain and desertion of our citizens had further exposed it as a deceitful party which used lies, propaganda and false promises to mislead the people in 2015 to denounce a system of governance which had their interest at heart and worked day and night to ensure a better life for them.

    “Today, the APC and its government have succeeded in wrecking the lives of ordinary Nigerians; stole their common patrimony; rendered many homeless, turned their joy into sadness, hope into hopelessness, fortune into abject poverty; reneged on all their enticing promises, swindled and abandoned our citizens to a life of misery.

    “From Katsina to Lagos, Kano to Edo, Kaduna to Osun, Yobe to Ekiti; Plateau to Kogi and all the places where the APC has left footprints at the federal and state levels, the downtrodden people have been exploited and now abandoned; treated by the APC as sub-humans in their own country.

    “Today, the APC relishes in abusing and insulting Nigerian youths; from Kano to Lagos, they deny them access to economic opportunities and jobs, yet tag them as lazy. The APC denies our youths good education, health care, comfortable homes and access to basic necessities of life, yet demean them as outcasts and undesirable elements fit only for life on the streets and as tools to manipulate elections for corrupt APC leaders.

    “The APC lied to a people who were already organizing their lives along the path of economic prosperity, development and national cohesion; they beguiled and misled them into believing that they were being led to El-dorado only to abandon them in the middle of nowhere, stripped of honour and means of survival,” it said.

    According PDP, the APC posed as the messiah; promised free houses, millions of jobs, monthly allowances and even to bring the value of dollar to one naira, saying that Buhari promised more prosperity and to rout out insurgency with the snap of the finger.

    “Unfortunately, what we witness today are total reneging on these promises, degradation of citizens, hunger and starvation, intimidation of dissenting voices, untold corruption, neglect of our infrastructure, annexation of electoral and judicial system, violation of human rights, in addition to escalation of insurgency and bloodletting while the President, who promised to lead from the front, recedes very far into the luxury and safety of Aso Presidential Villa.

    “Nigerians can recall how the PDP championed the cause of the downtrodden, established Almajiri schools, the e-wallet initiatives for rural farmers, built new universities, revamped our economy, overhauled our health care system, established the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), revamped the mortgage system to give Nigerians access to own homes and expanded the political space to promote youth and women participation in governance among others.

    “The APC has reversed all these gains. President Buhari and the APC cannot point to any people-oriented project they have executed to better the lot of the poor.

    “In fact, this pandemic has further exposed the APC as a party without plans for Nigerians, which only came to grab power to enrich themselves at the expense of the ordinary Nigerians,” the party alleged.

    The PDP, however, urged Nigerians not to despair but to rally among themselves, help each other and ensure that a party like APC, which had become an emblem of misfortune, did not come to power at any level after the end of this tenure.

  • Yul Edochie to Buhari: Provide relief items to poor Nigerians before declaring curfew

    Yul Edochie to Buhari: Provide relief items to poor Nigerians before declaring curfew

    Nollywood actor and politician, Yul Edochie, took to social media to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to provide an economic relief package to Nigerians.

    Yul Edochie’s plea came after the announcement of the imposed 14-day curfew on Lagos, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, with effect from 11 pm on Monday.

    The president, in a nationwide broadcast, said the decision was taken based on the advice of the health authorities with the aim of curtailing the spread of Coronavirus.

    “I am directing the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020. This restriction will also apply to Ogun State due to its close proximity to Lagos and the high traffic between the two States.

    “All citizens in these areas are to stay in their homes.”

    However, Edochie noted that people are hungry and a “stay at home” order with no money will make life difficult.

    “Dear President Muhammadu Buhari. Pls (please) provide an economic relief package for Nigerians, even if it’s 50k each, it will go a long way.

    “People are hungry, locked down with no money, begging left, right & center. With a situation like this, it’ll be difficult to keep people at home,” Yul Edochie tweeted on Sunday.