The Presidency, on Friday night, slammed
Senator Danjuma Goje for saying he was yet to see any beneficiary of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP).
Recall that Senator
Goje criticised the SIP after Maryam Uwais, an aide to President Muhammadu
Buhari, informed the National Assembly that the programme received between 2016
and 2017 N175billion out of the N1 trillion approved in the budgets for the two
years.
However, Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Friday night, also
tackled Goje for saying during a Senate Appropriation Committee hearing
Thursday that N1.5 trillion had so far been released for the SIP.
The vice president’s spokesman
described the senator’s statement as unfortunate and irresponsible.
He said: “First, we would like to
hope that the senator was misquoted. And we call on him to make the necessary
clarifications. However, were it to be true that he made such wild claims, it
would not only be unfortunate but certainly an irresponsible statement.”
Akande explained that while
N500bn was budgeted for the programme in 2016 and 2017 each, only a N175bn had
so far been released.
“It is incredible that the
distinguished senator will insinuate otherwise. If actually he was accurately
reported, we would say he ought to have requested for the information instead
of misleading an entire nation with such an incredible claim,” he stated.
He said the SIP was touching
lives as the testimonies were abound, adding that by God’s grace, more lives
would be touched this year.
He said Buhari’s administration
would not relent in the vigorous pursuit of the SIP in line with the manifesto
of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
According to Akande, the
Presidency hopes and plans to ramp up all the schemes to widen the scope and bring
in more beneficiaries.
“While the Senator was claiming
he knew no one from his State who has benefited from the SIP at a Senate
Committee hearing, his colleague from Kogi State, distinguished Senator Atai
Aidoko requested from the Special Adviser to the President on SIP, Mrs. Maryam
Uwais, (who was before the Appropriations Committee) for a random name of a
beneficiary from his State, called the number there and then and got positive
confirmation from the beneficiary. That Senator then formally announced the
outcome of his random call to the entire Senate hearing.
“For the avoidance of any doubt,
there are today in this country 200,000 previously unemployed Nigerian
graduates who are receiving their N30,000 monthly stipends as they serve their
communities in different capacities including as teaching assistants, Agric
extension aides or community health workers.
“There are today in our nation
more than 7.4 million primary school pupils in 22 States who are being fed one
hot meal a day under the Buhari SIP. Almost 300,000 Nigerians are also
receiving N5000 monthly cash transfer among our most vulnerable & poorest
citizens. Our target for the cash transfer is one million. And there are almost
300,000 Nigerians who have benefited from micro-credit loans of between N10,
000 to N100,000.
“These are the facts and the
selection process for the beneficiaries are open, transparent and can be easily
cross-checked by any diligent inquirer.”
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IT IS SO SADDENED THAT A SENATOR IN THIS COUNTRY WOULD SPEAK NEGATIVELY ON A COMMENDABLE EFFORT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA FOR DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB IT IS BEING FELT ACROSS ALL THE STATES OF THE FEDERATION. DEAR SENATOR, HOW MANY LIVES HAVE YOU TOUCHED IN YOUR CONSTITUENCY? THERE ARE LOTS OF TESTIMONIES FOR ALL THE BENEFICIARIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SIP PROGRAMME. IF JOBS CAN BE CREATED IN THIS MANNER OF NPOWER PROGRAMME THEN NIGERIA WOULD BE BETTER OFF AND WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN IN THIS KIND OF HIGH RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT BECAUSE THE PROCESS IS VERY VERY TRANSPARENT. -
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