BENIN CITY – President Muhammadu Buhari has been commended for initiating Social Investment Programme for the benefit of the less privileged in Nigeria in order to reduce the level of poverty.
The commendation was given by Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole while speaking at the stakeholders’ sensitization workshop of the Federal Government Social Investment Programme in Benin City yesterday,
Governor Oshiomhole said, “Let me on behalf of the government and the great people of Edo State appreciate our president, Mr. President, President Muhammadu Buhari for making history, at least to my own limited knowledge of recent history to appropriate funds specifically directed at children of the poor in public schools by way of one meal a day for children from primary one to three, recognizing that whereas many Nigerians are poor, some are much poorer than others, and that it is not their fault. Government has responsibility to identify those ones, the poorest of the poor, not to share crocodile tears for them or with them, but to boldly appropriate public funds structured in a way that will deliver some relief to these categories of our country men and women.”
He said, “For too long, everybody laments the growing numbers of unemployed youths, and in this democracy, the youths are the most active, and they are the most vibrant. Everybody says the youths are the leaders of tomorrow, but we are unable to define when is tomorrow. I believe our president, President Muhammadu Buhari has defined tomorrow to mean today, and that government needs to demonstrate beyond rhetoric that not only do we reject this unacceptable level of youth idleness, but government at the highest level has created a scheme that will enable some of these youths to be engaged, including being engaged in teaching, being encouraged to acquire skills, and to make them what they should be: part of our human resource which is the most important resource any country needs to grow on a sustainable basis.”
Governor Oshiomhole explained, “For me, I am particularly excited with the school feeding programme. I am particularly excited because given our share commitment, and I think the world over that every child has a right, a constitutional right, in fact, inalienable right to go to school. What more can we do not to only to get the child to go to school, but to ensure that at least he is guaranteed a meal while at school so that he will be in a state of mind to be able to benefit from teaching and learning. In Edo State, we recognize education as the foundation of any attempt to empower anyone. And that is why have devoted huge resources every year, first by rebuilding our schools and making them attractive to young children, trying to deal with inequality between urban and rural areas by ensuring that the qualities of schools in our cities are exactly the same standard you find in any village where we have rebuild schools. The same furniture you will find in these schools is exactly the same furniture you will find in the most remote village where we have rebuild the schools and re-equipped so that our children do not grow up with inferiority complex in relation to the children of the rich, because society cannot enjoy peace on a sustainable basis if there is no justice and fairness.”
He emphasised further, “And that is why we commend Mr. President for this very bold initiative, and above all and in order to demonstrate that he understands clearly that he is the President of Nigeria, not president of a political party, he has chosen by appointing Mrs. Wais. The President has done his part. He has found the will to appropriate. He has found the resources even in this difficult time to set funds aside to get this done. He has identified credible men and women under the able the leadership of Justice Wais to provide leadership for particular project.”
He added, “The challenge now is for you and I in our communities to be guided by the spirit and the intentions behind this project, and ensure that the target group benefits. Those are huge challenges in our environment. Issues of definition how we can be fair and just, because the president is not going to sit in Abuja and tells us who needs this support in our communities. The president is trusting that no matter what anybody wants to say about our country, we have responsible elders, community leaders, religious leaders, whether muslims or Christians, who can with the fear of God identify those who need help in our midst and ensure that they alone benefit from this. Now this task is in your hands; this task to a lesser extent is in my hand because it is not a decision to be made by government. It is a decision to be made by people.”
He further said, “So, I invite all of us that are privileged to be here to be guided by the spirit of this programme and help the president to deliver relief to those who need it in our own great state. We know those who need them. I think we must now go back and ensure that this is done. It is not an APC project. It is not for APC members. It is for Nigerians. Parties will come and go, or there will always be different political parties, but our people are constant, and the essence of our politics is to address the critical needs of society. So, I hope that all of you who will find yourselves having to be called upon to play one role or the other at the level of implementation that you will be guided by the spirit of Mr. President as enunciated by the Special Assistant, Mrs. Uwais.”
Earlier, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Federal Government Social Investments, Mrs. Mariam Uwais said, “The government is concerned that despite the fact that we have so many people in Nigeria, fifty eight million of Nigerians are considered poor, and the inequality gap has increased. The gap between male and female, the poverty gap is very large. And there is a need now to ensure that resources are spread more evenly across the country and so our social protection programmes are essentially ones that are aimed at bridging inequalities between the rich and the poor. Since 2000 and today, there has been twenty six programmes implemented by the federal government.”
She said, “In addressing these issues, the federal government has come up with five programmes. It has set up an office within the office of the Vice President in the Presidency to ensure effective monitoring to deliver standard mechanism that will be sustainable to avoid duplication of roles to ensure proper coordination and synergy among key ministries and also between the various levels of government.”
Mrs. Uwais continued, “Our programmes are designed to reduce poverty and inequality, also to jumpstart progress and human development through conditional cash transfer, job creation, school feeding, skills development, education and financial inclusion. A lot of people remain outside the financial landscape. We want to stimulate productivity, feeding for people to be able to have cash in their hands. We need a more sustainable and more inclusive growth. We need reduced poverty rate.”
According to her, “We have cash transfer programme which is going to be money sent to beneficiaries directly in the different communities. And we have an enterprise and empowerment programme which is access to credit for market women, for women cooperatives, for youths and for farmers. And we have bursary programme which is to encourage young children and students in secondary schools. It is a bursary programme that will be given to them, those that have admission to study science, technology, engineering, mathematics and education. The N-Power is a volunteer corps for graduate and non-graduate. It is training for empowerment and also for knowledge.”
She added, “We intend to employ 500,000 unemployed graduates in this first year. It is open to all unemployed Nigerian graduates between the ages of 18 and 35. All you need to do is to go on to the porter that has been opened, and it closes on the 31st of August, 2016. The porter is www.npower.gov.ng.”
