The Chief Imam, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Sanni Amidu, has slammed the use of palliatives by governments as an alternative to social welfare programmes, as an indication of “systemic failures”.
Amidu, who expressed this view about palliatives and its bearing on the social psyche of the people, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said a better egalitarian and social-economic mobilisation that would aid people in wealth creation should be prioritised by all tiers of government.
“It should be seen in the creation of infrastructures that would be a catalyst to wealth redistribution among the people,” he said.
He noted that the state could not afford to fail in its social welfare role in the lives of the people and such should not be replaced with palliatives.
According to him, palliatives as an instrument of relief for the populace is a national indictment and an indication of systemic failures across the political and social landscapes.
“Only a nation of refugees and IDPs should enthuse at the regime of palliatives.
“The deaths and injuries resulting from stampedes across the country illustrate how the social fabric of welfares, care for the vulnerable have broken down completely.
“Commodification of poverty in which the middle class, already wiped out in the Nigerian system, has equally joined the class of beneficiaries of palliatives.
“Worse still is the politicisation of the distribution. The government at all levels should please brace up and be alive to their responsibilities,” he said.
