…N2trn Social Investment Programme: Lawan, Gbajabiamila got it wrong — Presidency

By Henry Umoru & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

THE National Assembly yesterday asked the executive arm to facilitate fair and equitable distribution of stimulus package across the country, as part of measures to cushion the effect of coronavirus now ravaging the globe.

It also urged the executive arm to provide free electricity to Nigerians for a period of two months.

The demand came at a consultative meeting of the National Assembly leadership

with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, members of Presidential Committee on COVID-19 and other key drivers of the Nigerian economy in Abuja yesterday.

Speaking at the meeting, President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, in his opening remarks, said only an equitable distribution of food items to the people would enhance success of government’s lockdown policy.

In attendance were the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari.

The meeting was also attended by speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, some principal officers and relevant Senate and House Committee members.

The meeting was in continuation of engagements with the Ministers as the Federal Government plans to adjust the 2020 budget to now include a N500 billion COVID-19 stimulus package.

The meeting also become necessary, as the Senate president had continuously emphasized the need to effectively streamline all the proposed interventions by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

READ ALSO: Lawan, Gbajabiamila fault Implementation of SIP

Speaking further, Lawan, who noted that all parts of the country should be considered in the intervention initiatives of the Federal Government, said:  “We must ensure that there is fairness in the interventions.

‘’Every part of this country should have something to ameliorate the situation, whether it is coronavirus- infected or not. In fact, some of our states have been in a very difficult situation before the outbreak of coronavirus and such interventions will definitely help.”

He also tasked the relevant agencies of government to ensure that they streamline their activities along the provisions in the 2020 budget to avoid needless duplication of projects.

“In our stimulus package, we need to ensure provisions that will streamline with what is already in the 2020 budget so that we don’t do duplication.

“In our last meeting, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning indicated very clearly that the Eexecutive is proposing a N500 billion stimulus package.

“While this is a very good proposal, how we wish you could even have more than N500 billion, but my belief is that we don’t duplicate what is already in the 2020 budget.

“Of course, there is utmost need to streamline what the Federal Ministry of Finance is proposing and what the CBN is also proposing because some of the proposals may have a spill over effect on some projects.

“So there is the need for the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN to have their intervention streamlined in such a manner that what someone loses under the stimulus package of the Federal Ministry of Finance, he gains in the stimulus package of the CBN.

“We must ensure that these Interventions have very clear and definite measurable targets. We shouldn’t just throw money and then we don’t see anything because the National Assembly will ensure that it monitors every single Kobo if and when the proposal is endorsed,’’ he added.

On his part, speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said in providing stimulus, the Federal Government could reach more people and households by paying for their electricity tariffs for the next two months.

Gbajabiamila said free electricity would come as a great relief to many citizens during the period of lockdown, pointing out that Nigeria’s neighbour, Ghana, had come up with similar stimulus package for its citizens.

Presidency on SIP

Meanwhile, the Presidency yesterday responded to the allegation by the leadership of the National Assembly that the nation’s social involvement programme meant to assist the poorest of the poor in the country was a failure.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, among other stakeholders on Tuesday tongue lashed the Presidency on what they described as poor implementation of the SIP.

Reacting to the allegation, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments said that all the measures taken in identifying the real beneficiaries were transparently done and followed the due process.

She said that since poverty knows no ethnicity, religion or political affiliation, the process must be insulated from influences likely to deviate from achieving the desired objective of alleviating abject poverty, rather than be used for patronage or as compensation for loyalty.

She further said that all successful social protection programmes extract their beneficiaries from an objective community platform, if only to ensure that the poorest of the poor are supported out of poverty in an inclusive community driven and timely manner.

Mrs. Uwais said she had consistently reminded both NASS Committee Chairmen on Poverty Alleviation that there is no social protection programme in the world in which politicians are responsible for selecting the beneficiaries of cash transfers.

She said: “My attention has been drawn to the online report of the Nation newspaper of 7th April 2020, with the above caption. Indeed, several other online publications carried similar stories, alleging that the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs), as supervised under the Office of the Vice President, were a ‘scam’. Given the gravity and implications of the narrative conveyed, as well as the calibre of persons involved, it has become necessary to clarify the issues in the public domain.

“That the National Social Investment Programme has gulped over N2 trillion since 2016, when the fund was created. That is very untrue.

“Although the total appropriation by the National Assembly (NASS) from inception, for the 4 NSIPs, is N1.7 trillion, the actual funds released for the NSIPs between January 2016 and October 2019 (when the NSIPs were handed over to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development), amounted to N619.1 billion, constituting 36.4% of the total appropriation from the NASS.

“The monies released for the N-SIPs can be further broken down into  14.03% (2016); 35% in 2017; 43.5% in 2018 and 57.8% (as at Sept 2019) of the N500 billion in 2016 and N400 billion appropriated for subsequent years.”

Vanguard