The present efforts by both state and federal governments to assuage the sufferings of Nigerians through the provision of palliatives occasioned by the global coronavirus pandemic, may be a step in the right direction but a university don and traditional ruler in Rivers State, has criticized the state and federal government, arguing that what is being bandied as palliatives is but mere ‘window dressing’.
Dr. Amos Nwikiri, a lecturer at the Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) faulted what he said is akin to ‘handing out peanuts’ in the guise of palliatives.
Nwikiri, who is the Ochi Oha of Ikiri Community, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, argued that by its nomenclature, a palliative is something done to make a bad situation seem better even though the problem is not entirely solved.
“What is happening both at the state and federal level is sheer insensitivity and window dressing. How can you give a starving family two pieces of Indomie and few cups of rice and you call it palliative. I don’t want to believe that government does not know the meaning of palliative”, he posited.
“What would one tuber of yam, Indomie, cups of rice and garri do for a family of four?”, he queried, citing example with the United States of America and Europe where an individual is enjoying a monthly take home of a minimum of $1,200. With such amount, one is expected to stock the kitchen with food that should last for a month”, he said.
He said Nigeria is rich enough for each household to receive not less than one hundred thousand Naira for monthly upkeep while the Covid-19 lasts.
Dr. Nwikiri also described as laughable the federal government’s classification of poor persons as those who have less than N5000 in their bank accounts and whose airtime recharge does not exceed a hundred Naira at a time.
Faulting the use of such parameter for measuring the rich and poor, the royal father said a rich person is not known by the ‘size of stomach’.
“How do I mean? It’s like the childish thinking that those who live upstairs are the rich. A man could even own a house which he built twenty years ago, when he was rich and flaunting money. He could be a poor man today, merely managing to survive, regardless of the fact that he still lives in his own house. Now government would classify such a person as rich and would not want to extend the palliative to him”, he said.
He went on: “There is no way you could determine who is indigent or otherwise. Some people do not keep money in the bank. Some may leave just two or three thousand naira in the bank but they have tens of thousands stashed somewhere and government looks at them and call them poor people”, he said and urged government to adopt a more realistic approach and provide palliatives to generality of the people.
