The Muhammadu Buhari administration last week showcased its achievements in the last two years. One of programs the regime brandished is the National Social Investment Programme, N-SIP, elaborated by the catch-phrase “A Smile for Every Nigerian.” At the event, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning Hajiya Zainab Ahmed promised that the executive would soon roll out the policy framework for social protection in order to give legal teeth to N-SIP.
She said, “The policy was drafted in line with the commitment of the president when he was campaigning to provide social intervention programmes for Nigerians…We may not have all the answers; we are going about this with a purpose of succeeding in moving our people out of poverty…” the minister re-echoed the words of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo who has demonstrated a passion for the administration’s social security scheme by promising to implement them in diverse ways in spite of the clouded state of the country’s finances.
The administration had promised social intervention schemes such as like ‘Teach Nigeria’ under which 500,000 young graduates would be hired, trained and deployed to teach in public schools. There is also the youth empowerment programme N-Power, under which 300,000 to 500,000 youths would go through skill acquisition and vocational training. Under the Conditional Cash Transfer programme N5,000 would be paid monthly to one million extremely poor Nigerians. The Homegrown School Feeding Programme is meant to provide a decent meal each for public primary school pupils every school day. There is also the mooted micro credit scheme where the Federal Government promised to give N60bn loans to one million artisans, market women and men. The regime also promised free tertiary education scheme for 100,000 students of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Two years into the Buhari administration’s 4-year tenure, these desirable schemes have barely taken off. These social security schemes are highly needed in this country. In many developed societies, similar schemes are in place to cater for the poor. Where it is well-implemented, it gives citizens a high sense of belonging and discourages them from engaging in criminal activities and other desperate measures in search of livelihood.
In fact, Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enjoins every country to provide social security to its indigent citizens. It states, “Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each state, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.”
In order to succeed in planning and executing this programme appropriately, we call on government to gather reliable data on the number of Nigerians who are very vulnerable and deserve to benefit from the schemes. It is sad that up till now, Nigeria does not have a reliable data on unemployment, not to talk of those who are poor. There is no proper record of deaths and births in this country. The data in use for planning are essentially estimated ones, which are not very reliable.
Also, it is vital to streamline the scheme so that only what can be effectively implemented should be continued. Frustration will set it if such laudable programmes commence only to be terminated in no distant future due to lack of funds. If this must work, the funding for the social security schemes should be in the first line charge, not subject to the whims and caprices of greedy political leaders.
Furthermore, we call on the administration to put in place a proper legal framework for the implementation of the schemes, so that successive administrations do not discard them. The National Assembly should be co-opted into this vision and an Act of the National Assembly that will give it strength to endure from one administration to another should be enacted.
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