TheCable

Goke Akinrogunde, a public health specialist, says the federal government should be focusing on addressing the root cause of poverty in Nigeria rather than disbursing N8,000 palliative to the people.

Akinrogunde spoke on Monday during a Crest FM programme on the state of the nation.

The federal government had earlier announced that the sum of N8,000 will be disbursed to poor and vulnerable Nigerians, to cushion the impact of petrol subsidy removal in the country.

Akinrogunde said the palliative is not a commendable idea as the cost of living in the country has become very high.

“We know that the estimated palliative of N8,000, has been described by many as commendable,” he said.

“But given the assessment of the cost of living even in the rural area where we probably have most of the poor families in Nigeria, I think there is nothing commendable about that proposal.

“Even as the proposal is yet to be put on the table, how is this going to be different from the similar interventions that we have made during the last regime of our last president, Buhari, under the guise of N-Power and the rest and we were wondering, who are the people that collected and what is the impact?

“I don’t think that is the way to go. The way to go is to attack the foundation of poverty in Nigeria and not to remove subsidies that have a damaging impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.”

Akinrogunde said the best course of action is to directly intervene in areas like health and critical infrastructure.

“The way to go is to develop infrastructure that will make the lives of people meaningful to them, we need to make interventions with the health of our people, we need to make our intervention in dedication,” he said.

“So I don’t think there is something to commend here, especially if you look at how your pocket individually has been drained since the entrance of this regime so we will wait and see how this would become something meaningful.

“What to do at this moment is more of the government intervening directly in what will make lives better for people and not just doling out money.”

The public health expert criticised the proposed palliative for lawmakers, adding that political leaders need to start making sacrifices for the development of the country.

“Our people have always been sacrificing. We know those who are not sacrificing and when you look at them, what they were before they became active in the political class, we know what they transmit at this point in time,” he said.

“People that cannot afford a three-bedroom flat now have mansions everywhere and it keeps growing as they are not thinking of sacrifice.

“Recently, the national assembly was also talking about their own possible palliative of about N70 billion.

“The place to campaign for sacrifice is not with most Nigerians. They have always been sacrificing. Sacrifice should start from the top.”