FG’s N5,000 Stipend To The Poor

With beneficiaries from Borno, Kwara and
Bauchi States reported to have started
receiving the N5,000 monthly stipend promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015 presidential electioneering campaigns, the long-awaited social security programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has finally taken off in earnest.
A statement from the office of the Vice President indicated that a total of nine pilot states with an existing Social Register of most vulnerable and poorest, developed through a tried and tested Community Based Targeting (CBT) method, with assistance from the World Bank, were chosen to begin the payment of the projected one million indigent Nigerians, considered for the scheme.
The statement issued by Laolu Akande, spokesman of Vice President Yemi Osimbajo, which listed the nine States to include Borno, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross River, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti said that the programme is being implemented through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) component of the government’s Social Investment Programme (SIP).
The payment which is a 2015 campaign promise of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has since become a national issue with some applauding the development and others expressing strong reservations on the workability or otherwise of the programme.
Those who laud the Federal Government’s gesture see the take-off of the programme as not only a promise fulfilled, but also as an integral part of measures to stimulate the economy and drive it out of its present sorry state, while positively touching the lives of the downtrodden at the same time.
On the flip side are those who are of the opinion that merely giving out money for people to spend without engaging them in any production activity will not help the economy but would rather encourage laziness, constitute a source of further division and rancour among the people and create another avenue for corruption. They queried its sustainability after the exit of the Buhari’s administration.
Accordingly, they argue that government should channel such funds towards reviving dead and dying industries, and the building of new ones to provide jobs and gainful employment for the teeming unemployed who will in turn cater for the poor and the vulnerable.
The Tide however thinks that the payment of N5,000 to the poor and vulnerable Nigerians as a social security measure is a welcome development but that the package needs to be properly finetuned and implemented in order to achieve its altruistic purpose.
First is the fact that the amount should have been reviewed in the face of the prevailing grave economic realities. The current recession in the country and the plummeting value of the naira have massively eroded the real worth of the said amount and therefore significantly devalued the original intention of the initiative as one to provide succour to the target group.
No doubt, the token may gladden the hearts of the beneficiaries and bring smiles to their faces and inspire hope and patriotism in others. This is why we strongly advise the Federal Government to take necessary measures to protect the scheme from being hijacked by politicians as was the case with similar initiatives in the past.
We hear that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is angling to take control of the implementation of the programme, especially in the non-APC controlled states. Suffice it to say that acceding to the demand of the party will render the programme dead on arrival.
Stringent measures must be adopted to ensure that the implementation is water-tight, free from manipulation by party faithful and that only prospective beneficiaries get the money while mindless politicians are kept far away from using it as a tool for settlement of party loyalists and cronies.
We also think that to make the scheme truly meaningful and achieve its objectives, government must redouble its efforts at turning around the economic fortunes of the country through the formulation and diligent implementation of policies and programmes that would ensure the resuscitation of moribund industries and the development of the solid mineral sector.
The Tide believes that diversification of the economy, expansion of the revenue base of the country and profitable engagement of Nigerians, among others, will not only create wealth for the nation but also make the scheme less burdensome for the government and enable it reach out to more people in need of support and assistance.
This, we think is the only way to establish a sustainable social welfare scheme that will stand the test of time and not just a desire to fulfill impulsive campaign promises.