AS part of what it called Social Investment Programmes, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress administration recently commenced the payment of N5,000 monthly stipend to some of the poorest in the country, to mitigate the hardship they face with the situation of the economy.
The programme, implemented through a Conditional Cash Transfer system, is a fulfillment of one of the campaign promises of the ruling APC administration.
The scheme, as gathered by The Point, has commenced in three states, namely Borno, Kwara and Bauchi, with another six states, Ekiti, Cross River, Niger, Kogi, Oyo and Osun, lined up to join shortly. But political analysts, politicians and concerned citizens across the country have been expressing concerns as to how successful the programme would be, against the backdrop of the hydra-headed corruption that has become the bane of almost every good thing in Nigeria.
They believe the development will only encourage looters, who have always been pretending to be patriotic Nigerians in the ongoing administration, to have access to another slush fund.
They also argued that the project at the current time is not what the Nigerian people need to survive the ongoing hardship, adding that the government should instead concentrate on projects that would promote employment across in the country.
A former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, told The Point that the Buhari administration will only disgrace itself with the scheme. Balarabe said, “In the first place, what are the criteria to determine the poor? As far as I am concerned, 90 percent of Nigerians are poor.
People who cannot afford three square meals, afford good health care system, take good care of their family are poor. And how do you think they will cope with the N5000 they will be given? “Also, we have been hearing that the government will pay unemployed graduates.
Let me tell you, I don’t see this administration having the strength and capacity to cope with this. “What is preferable is for the government to use this money to boost agriculture to create employment, instead of creating avenue for their people to loot more money.
I think this government ought to have learnt from its past error since it assumed office. Nigeria is in critical condition, and you are sharing stipend to people. Is that the solution to the looming hardship in the economy? I think Buhari and his people should wise up.”
Meanwhile, Professor Oluremi Sonaiya, the only female presidential candidate in 2015 election, who contested under the umbrella of KOWA Party, said she doubted if the Buhari government can sustain the programme, considering the involved rigour.
She said, “I am not sure about the sustainability of the scheme, considering the rigour that goes with it. I am in support of the programme. There are people in every society who cannot fend for themselves, but there must be a system that determine who qualifies for that programme. In the United States, it is called Social Security System.
“Interestingly, I benefited from the one that was done in the US, because I was studying there and my income then was below the poverty line, so they have to key me in for it and I benefited from it.
So, if the programme is going on in this country, it is a good development; we all clamoured for it, but our concern for it is how sustainable it is, especially, when this government leaves office.
Also, another concern is how they will manage it, without the fund been looted by our corrupt people.” However, a former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Taofeek Gani, said, “I don’t like the idea of paying N5,000 stipend to some category of people. How long will it take before the recipient finishes it?
That is not a lasting solution to combating poverty. “What the Federal Government should do is to create jobs and encourage graduates to be employers of labour, with a mindset of starting their own businesses.
We need the enabling environment for Small and Medium Enterprises to thrive. What will N5,000 buy in this present economy? I can assure it will finish the same day the recipient gets it.” A professor of Sociology from the University of Port Harcourt, Steven Okodudu, described the scheme as a non-starter, because N5,000, in today’s economy is nothing. Okodudu said, “The payment of N5,000 by the Federal Government to the poor to tackle poverty is a non-starter. What will N5,000 afford anybody in today’s Nigeria? In the village, a basin of garri is N3,000.
Paying N5,000 to fight poverty will only mean that the government is playing to the gallery. It is a way of glamorising poverty. Rather than engage in giving such handouts to millions of Nigerians, who are living above the poverty line, the government should target giving a huge sum of money to less number of Nigerians, who have the entrepreneurial acumen to manage funds.
This will have a positive effect on the country economicall,ythan giving N5,000 each to millions of Nigerians. “Those facing poverty do not need an amount as low as what the government is giving to move away from the poverty facing them. The truth of the matter is that the government’s action is nothing but throwing money away. “Let me also say that the payment of N5,000 to millions of poor Nigerians is unsustainable.
It is playing politics with something as serious as poverty alleviation, and that cannot help Nigerians in the current situation. That somebody is poor, does not mean he does not have the entrepreneurial skills that can make him rich, if he gets adequate funding at their disposal.”
Also, the Enugu State chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Chukwuma Igbokwe, said the N5,000 stipend earmarked for the poor will not solve Nigerians’ problems considering current value of naira, adding that the good thing about the scheme was that it was in fulfillment of one of the campaign promises of the APC-led Federal Government.
“I think the value of N5,000 is no longer what it was when the promise was made. It has been overtaken by the impact of the present economic situation in the country,” he said He added, “As it is, N5,000 cannot sustain anybody for a week.
The payment of the stipend should be implemented in a way that will make as much impact as it can, and I think if it is implemented all round, it can still make some impacts. But I think the scheme has to be reviewed if it is actually going to help alleviate poverty in the country.
The sum should be reviewed upwards, to about N15,000 Be that as it may, the best approach is to create jobs. Why pay somebody N5,000 for doing nothing, unless such a person is handicapped?
So, the best option is to create jobs. “What is the percentage of Nigerians collecting the money? Bear in mind that even Nigerians, who earn more than N100,000 monthly, are also facing hardship, much less those that receive only N5,000.
The Federal Government should do everything possible to fix the economy. They should ensure steady supply of power, put the roads in order and initiate sound policies that will boost investment in all the key sectors.
If the economy is in order, there will be no need to pay stipends to anybody, apart from the physically-challenged and the elderly.”
HOW WE SELECT THE POOR FOR N5000 STIPEND – PRESIDENCY
The Presidency said that it used the World Bank’s Community Based Targeting model, established two years ago, to select the beneficiaries of its N5000 monthly stipends to the poorest Nigerians.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, in a statement in Abuja said the CBT model of the World Bank had been used two years ago to identify most of the beneficiaries in the pilot states.
He said the World Bank was also an active agent in the selection process, explaining, however, that the data collected belonged to Nigeria. He explained that in eight of the nine pilot states, the selection process had taken place at least two years ago under a programme supported by the World Bank, in an agreement entered into directly with the state governments.
He said the ninth state, Borno, was added because of the situation of the Internally Displaced Persons. According to him, the process of selecting beneficiaries is fair and transparent and without mischief.
He said: “There is no way you can describe this process as partisan. The President is President of the entire country and the Social Intervention Programmes are for all Nigerians, as the case may be.”
In addition to the nine pilot states, and with the release of funds for the programmes, the CBT model has now commenced in other states.
Let me also say that the payment of N5,000 to millions of poor Nigerians is not sustainable. It is playing politics with something as serious as poverty alleviation and that cannot help Nigerians in the current situation
He said: “There is no way anyone can describe the selection of the beneficiaries of the CCT as partisan, as the beneficiaries from eight of the nine pilot states were picked, even before this administration came into office.
“First, officials at federal level, working with state officials, identified the poorest local government areas, using an existing poverty map for the state, then the local government officials identified the poorest communities in the councils and we sent our teams there.
“The first thing our team did after selection of the local councils was to select members of the NOA, the local council and community officials to form the CBT team. Then we trained the selected officials on how to conduct focus group discussions at community level.
These focus groups comprise of women, men, youths, as the community determines. “After training them, the CBT teams now go to each of their communities to sensitise the leaders, including traditional rulers, on the CBT process and the necessity for objectivity and openness in the process.
At that meeting, they firmed up a date to convene a community meeting at a designated location within the community. “On the set date, discussions were held in the local languages, using terminologies that resonate in that community.
The CBT team would explain to the community the purpose of the gathering, that is to determine the parameters of poverty upon which persons can be described as poor and vulnerable within the context of that community.”
He said the CBT teams would then engage each group (men, women and youths) in the conversation around the criteria and parameters for determining the poorest people. He explained further that the groups would then be encouraged to identify those households that fell within the criteria that the community itself determined, after being told that the information was required for government’s planning purposes.
The CBT team, according to him, would then compile the criteria and parameters and ask each group to return to their break-out sessions and begin to identify the households in the community that had been identified as fitting the criteria and parameters. “Once that is done at the break-out sessions, everybody comes together again with names compiled by each group.
Now, when the same name is featured in at least two of the three groups, it is deemed qualified to be listed on the Social Register,” he added.
He said that at that stage, bank accounts were opened for each of the caregivers, by capturing the biometric data of households identified as among the poorest and vulnerable.
He said states had been updated on the requirements for the engagement by the federal team, adding that once the lists from states were enumerated, their details were uploaded onto a server at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, which hosts the electronic platform that validates all the payments of the FG for the SIPs.
He said banks had been informed that payments must be at community level, so those banks engaged for the pilot stage had in turn engaged several payment agents, to ensure cashout to the beneficiaries in their places of residence.
It is however hoped that the scheme would not along the line be hijacked by dubious politicians, who have come to see the commonwealth as their birthright
