Federal Government is working diligently toward making life more meaningful for Nigerians through carefully designed projects.

The government says it is aware of the plight of many citizens due to the challenges in the economy, saying a five hundred billion naira Social Intervention Programme has been put in place to help alleviate poverty.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made this known at the eighth Alhaji Kafaru Tinubu Memorial Ramadan Lecture with the theme: “Supreme Sacrifice and the Essence of Followership in Governance’’ organised by Lagos State Radio Service owners of Radio Lagos/Ekofm.

Mohammed said the huge money earmarked for the intervention programme in this years budget was one of the sacrifices the government had to make in the face of falling revenue, saying government was making a lot of sacrifices and it was also expecting a lot of sacrifices from the people.

According to him, the five hundred billion naira Social Intervention Programme which is broken into five parts covers employment of five hundred thousand unemployed graduates who would be trained as teachers, saying it also covers the employment of one hundred thousand artisans as well as the One-Meal-A-Day programme for pupils in primary schools.

He said the Enterprise Scheme which was targeted at one million market men and women, four hundred and sixty thousand artisans, two hundred thousand agriculture workers is also covered in the programme, saying it also covers the five thousand naira monthly conditional cash transfer to the poor and vulnerable.

Mohammed dismissed some media reports that some states claimed they were not ready for the A-Meal-A-Day programme due to funding challenges, emphasising that the federal government was solely responsible for the funding of the programme.

According to him, the pilot scheme of the programme has started and it will cover five point five million pupils when fully on stream.

In his lecture, Chief Imam, Lagos State University, Professor Ahmid Sanni, said the virtue of sacrifice was beyond prayers and fasting, as it also requires the show of love and care to the less privileged in the society.

In his remarks, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State extolled the virtues of the late Alhaji Kafaru Tinubu, the Patriarch of the Tinubu Family in Central Lagos.