The Governor of Anambra State in Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, remarked that if all of Anambra’s earnings were distributed equally among its residents, each person would receive less than N2,500.
Speaking at The Platform, an event hosted by Lagos-based church Covenant Nation to commemorate the 2024 Democracy Day on Wednesday, Soludo expressed his empathy for Nigerians during these difficult times.
“As a person, for example, I deeply feel the pains of Nigerians at these challenging times especially the over 100 million Nigerians who are multidimensionally poor. Times are hard,” Soludo said.
“Sometimes, I just wish that I can give every resident of Anambra maybe a million naira each to ameliorate the hardship that we have, but the reality is that if we get our entire revenue in a month, both from FAAC and from our IGR and put it on the table, call all our estimated 8.5 million residents and share it, nobody will get up to N2,500.”
The governor stated that the limited funds, which amount to less than N2,500 per person, must still cover salaries, pensions, road construction, and investments in health and education.
Soludo noted that they have recently hired over 8,000 new teachers and more than a thousand medical personnel, who will also need to be paid from the same revenue.
He warned that Nigeria is facing severe fiscal challenges and technical solvency issues due to its extremely low tax revenue, one of the lowest in the world.
He also pointed out that the country’s debt has reached a level that leaves little room for additional borrowing, which is costly, while the needs of the citizens continue to grow exponentially every day.
Soludo suggested that although the Nigerian Government could resort to printing more money, this could lead to hyperinflation, where even a bottle of coke might cost N1 million within a week or two.
