Former presidential aide and Arise Television’s Morning Show anchor, Reuben Abati, has reacted to the Federal Government’s ₦70,000 transportation allowance for public sector workers,
Naija News reports that the Federal Government approved the ₦70,000 monthly transportation allowance following a meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja on Tuesday.
Reacting to the development during an episode of the Morning Show, Abati described the initiative as discriminatory.
According to him, it excludes private-sector employees.
He argued that rising transportation costs and high fuel prices affect Nigerians across both the public and private sectors, and questioned why the government’s intervention was limited to public servants.
He also questioned the initiative’s timing, suggesting it could be politically motivated.
The media personality made the remarks on Wednesday while discussing the Federal Government’s plan to provide transportation support to public workers amid the rising cost of living.
“So, federal government now said there is ₦70,000 naira transportation allowance for workers that are working in the public service.
“Well, I have an issue with that. Why is it only the public service? It’s not only organised labour that is affected in the public service, everybody is affected.
“Private sector, who is going to give us ₦70,000 naira transportation costs? We all go to the same market. No, we are all buying fuel at a very high cost,” Abati said.
Abati further faulted the government over its directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) arguing that the proposed measure had yet to produce tangible results for Nigerians.
“And the directive to NNPC, that has not even happened. We have not seen it, so we are all affected.
“So this is discriminatory,” he added.
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