The withdrawal of fuel subsidy causes hardships and lowers citizens’ incomes.

Updates on fuel subsidy;

Godwin Kwalbe, a university dean, has cautioned government officials at all levels against taking a superficial approach to ending the multifaceted poverty that affects a substantial portion of the population of the nation.

The suggestion was given by Kwalbe, a lecturer in the history department at Kaduna State University, to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

He claimed that the palliative approach to combating poverty gave the impression that the suffering brought on by the nation’s spiraling poverty was only temporary.

He said that the withdrawal of fuel subsidies did not result in hardship or poverty but rather merely pushed people farther into it.

The instructor made the point that more than half of the population was structurally impoverished, with many people being born into poverty and maybe living there forever.

In an effort to combat poverty, he pointed out that the Federal Government has introduced a number of palliative programs.

Some of the programs he named included the COVID-19 palliatives, economic stimulus packages like market moni, conditional cash transfers, public works programs, school food programs, and the present fuel subsidy palliatives.

However, he asserted that the programs, with the exception of the conditional cash transfer program, were created just to mitigate the effects of poverty rather than to combat it.

According to him, the palliatives in this situation are only acting as numbing agents and are not treating the underlying reasons of the pain.

He suggested that the federal, state, and local governments start afresh and develop well-organized social welfare and social protection programs.

He clarified that social protection included all of the policies and initiatives required to lessen the long-term effects of poverty and marginalization.

Kwalbe stated that the social protection programs ought to target the underemployed, seniors, PwDs, and other weak and vulnerable groups in particular.

He continued by saying that PwDs and older folks in particular should be given lifetime monthly allowances.

“Having our elderly parents stand in line with children and battle for a pittance in the name of palliatives is definitely contrary to the African value system.

“The pictures and videos of kids knocking down elderly parents while giving out palliatives are embarrassing for our wonderful country.

“The conversation regarding palliatives shouldn’t be discussed in isolation from the compensation package for public employees.

According to our African tradition, paying a civil servant’s wage entails covering the costs of many members of the extended family.

Because of the current national difficulty, he stated, “the government cannot be insensitive to the calls for an upward review of wages.”