By How Was N55bn Shared To Nigerians? Oyo Lawmaker Calls Out Minister Over COVID19 Palliatives
A federal lawmaker from Oyo State, Hon Shina Peller has called out the Minister of Humanitarian Afraid, Disaster Management and Social Development as he questions how the COVID19 palliatives were shared to Nigerians.
The lawmaker who represents the lseyin/ltesiwaju/ Kajola/lwajowa Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives noted that it was not evident that 2.6m households has benefitted from the N20,000 palliatives as claimed by the Ministry handling the cash transfer ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari to cushion the effects of the stay at home order given as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control continues to contain and control the spread of the dreaded coronavirus in Nigeria.
Hon Peller also noted that the Ministry needs to publish the list that was used to share the money as it seems nothing has been shared as himself and his colleagues are under pressure from their constituencies who have been bedevilling them with requests regarding the palliatives.
See below for his statement as released on his twitter page;
If the Federal Government claims that 2.6m households have benefited from the N20,000 palliatives, does that imply that 52 billion Naira was shared amongst Nigerians? I’ve been pondering on this to make sense of it.
The FGN needs a better strategy, because if after this huge amount has been disbursed to households, I’m still getting loads of calls and pressure from many of my people asking for my help with palliatives, then the Government strategy isn’t right.
My colleagues are facing the same pressure. The MHR is a bridge between the FG & the people, but due to the failed structure of our Nation, people are misinformed & frequently look up to lawmakers as executives believing there’s a budget for them to use to cater for their needs.
Well, it’s hard to understand how N20k was distributed to 2.6m households. So, I reason that a more beneficial and “economical” approach would have been used to distribute the money, especially via Local Government Areas.
For instance, if the Government had given at least N10million to each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria. It would have cost the FGN N7.7billion (saving a huge N44billion) and will reach far and wide to a lot of people in the country. That’s at the very least.
As an example, I represent 4 Local Govts in my Federal Constituency namely ISEYIN, ITESIWAJU, KAJOLA, IWAJOWA LG areas of Oyo State. If I supervise the distribution of N10 million to 500 people at N20k per head in a LG, it will be more beneficial and the impact will be felt more.
And for accountability, the list of all beneficiaries and their account numbers would be pasted on a notice board at the ward level. Because every LGA is divided into wards. It takes nothing to paste the list of about 50 beneficiaries in every ward in the country.
I have a total of 42 wards in my Fed. Constituency and I would need to give a report of the beneficiaries per ward. Also, the FG through the ministry can do a direct transfer to beneficiaries and give us a report with transfer receipts which must be pasted in all wards in Nig.
If the same is replicated by all members of House of Reps, the money will go down to the grassroots to reach the people and those who should benefit will benefit. The impact would be felt better than the FG distributing 52 billion naira to 2.6m households that can’t be verified.
I wonder how the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development came up with her list, and how that money was disbursed across the geographical spread.
There are certainly lessons to be learnt from this COVID19 pandemic.
