The Bishop of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has faulted the distribution of palliatives to Nigerians by the Federal and state governments in order to cushion the effect of the economic challenges bedevilling the nation.
News About Nigeria reported that in recent times, there have been reports of how some Nigerians lost their lives while trying to collect the palliatives made available by the government.
While speaking on Channel’s Television’s Sunday Politics, Kukah noted that the move by the government to share palliatives to Nigerians is undignifying.
This, according to him, is because many Nigerians most times end up with no palliative even after standing and fighting under the sun just to get one.
The cleric, therefore, called on the governments of the day to map out better plans to tackle the nation’s issues as giving the people handouts is not the best way out.
Kukah said, “We need to see a much more robust programme designed by the government to help us go away from just lining up and collecting palliative when we are not at war. I think it is the height of indignity to see Nigerians lining up every day under the sun and waiting to collect bags of rice which probably never come not because money has not been given but because everybody who gives out money in Nigeria from the Federal Government knows that a good part of this money is always stolen. Nigerians are not looking for handouts.
“There is a feeling that at the top there is no political will. I believe the Nigerian military is pretty well-equipped. The question we should ask ourselves is why fighting insecurity has been so much institutionalised. Ordinary farmers just want to go back to their farms. People just want to be able to get back to their lives. Ending insecurity is the beginning of this healing and a decisive programme and plan to end is the beginning of the healing,” Bishop Kukah insists.
