The House of Representatives mandated its joint committees on poverty alleviation and finance to conduct an investigative hearing involving the office of the vice President, the federal ministries of finance, budget and national planning, and state coordinators to ascertain the method of identifying and selection in the social intervention scheme of the federal government.
The investigation was sequel to the adoption of a motion brought by Hon. Mark Terseer Gbillah (APC- Benue), who pointed that the APC government had initiated four social intervention schemes.
Gbillah noted that the schemes include the home grown feeding programme, the condictional cash transfer (CCT) of N5000, which will be augmented by the World Bank with an additional N5000 to be paid monthly to one million Nigerians and the government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP); which is a loan scheme of N10,000 to N100,000 for market women, artisans, small businesses and the unemployed youths.
Other schemes under the social intervention programme according to Gbillah include the N-power programme, which targets university graduates and non-graduates who will be trained and equipped as teachers and agricultural and health workers on a monthly stipend of N30,000 for the graduates among them.
Gbillah said he was aware that the Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo had on January 2, 2017 announced that the federal government had commenced payment to vulnerable Nigerians under the four schemes in certain states of the federation.
He said the vice president indicated that school feeding programme and the CCT have commenced in three states, half of the 200,000 initial beneficiaries of the N-power programme have started receiving payment in 20 states and disbursement of the GEEP loans had commenced since November 25, 2016 in 14 states, including the FCT.
The lawmaker appreciated the efforts of the FG to fulfill its promises but expressed concerned about the efficacy of the methodology and criteria employed for identification and selection, the veracity of the identity of the beneficiaries and the certainty of the selection of the targeted demographics without extraneous and political influences which still leave cause for concern and reservations by Nigerians.
Further worried that reports suggesting that the federal government has completely ceded the identification and selection process for these programmes to the states to be superintended by coordinators appointed by state governments without the oversight or involvement of the federal institutions who conceptualized and approved the appropriation of funds for the schemes, except for the approval of payment.
According to him, " the ceding of these responsibilities solely to the states “has allegedly resulted in the nomination of beneficiaries who are loyal party members and stalwarts of the state governments, excluding Nigerians who are genuinely in need of this intervention”
He also added that the need to protect the interests of all Nigerians irrespective of party affiliation and to ensure equitable participation of all Nigerians in the social intervention schemes of the federal government is paramount.
The motion was unanimously supported by the lawmakers and when Speaker Yakubu Dogara who presided over the session put the question, it was adopted.
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