The Federal Government has been advised to review its policy of segregating the population in the distribution of palliatives and other essential commodities by broadening the number of recipients to make the programme more inclusive.
A former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Ntufam Hillard Eta, who gave the advice in Abuja called for the inclusion of every Nigerian citizen into the National Social Security Register to enable everyone benefit from the government palliative distribution programme.
Chief Hillard argued that it has become absolutely necessary to capture every Nigerian in the social safely net at the moment because every household has become disadvantaged due to the fuel subsidy removal.
The APC leader, who made these remarks while speaking with newsmen at the sidelines of a one-day summit on Palliatives Development and Social Security, organised by the Nigeria Citizens Welfare Project, said it is wrong to identify or classify any section of the population as poor, extremely poor or disadvantaged now when everyone has suffered untold hardship since the removal of the fuel subsidy.
Chief Hillard, who was the chairman of the summit remarked that each time palliative programmes are introduced, many politicians use the programme as opportunity to enrich themselves and smile to the banks and the palliatives do not get to the people targeted.
“We have people in the villages and they are not in the social register and do not benefit from any of the government interventions. What yardsticks were used in compiling the register that excludes poor people in some areas but captures others,” he wondered.
While opposing the idea of using palliatives to cushion the suffering of the masses, Chief Hillard argued that the best option would have been to improve the transportation, health and food supply sectors to ease the suffering of Nigerians who have been seriously impoverished by harsh government policies.
Discussions at the summit centered on the reliability of available data inherited by the present administration, the need for every Nigerian to receive sustainable assistance from. government and how to secure the cash and food items classified as palliatives to prevent them from going into wrong hands or being hijacked by greedy, desperate politicians and middlemen to enrich themselves at the expense of other citizens.
The Founder of Africa Crusade for Health and Environment, Dr. Philip Dumebi Okafor, who gave a Diaspora perspective on palliatives said there was nothing wrong with government interventions to cushion the effect of policies on the people.
He said in Canada, government invests heavily on those institutions that touch the lives of the people such as health, transportation and other public utilities that make life richer.
The Director General of the Nigeria Citizens Welfare Project, the
organisers of the summit, Comrade
Esanerovo Agbado, called on the federal and state governments to find workable strategies for palliatives distribution to cover the entire population rather than just a segment of society.
He argued that already development gaps have been created in the country with soaring transport fares, high cost of food items and other house hold commodities since the removal of the fuel subsidy.
He said the National Social Security
Register created for the poorest of the poor in society does not represent the population of those who need help and should be expanded to include every Nigerian.
“Without a reliable data, it will be difficult to properly distribute palliatives. it will only help in making some people rich. Let me state here that every Nigerian should be included in the social register because most Nigerians unless the super rich, are groaning and trying to cope with the economic realities prevalent today.
“Every Nigerian should be considered in the palliatives distribution and the right tool that should be used to capture people so that nobody is discriminated against should be the National Identification Number (NIN).”
Comrade Agbado appealed to the federal and state governments to do something positively to reduce transport fares and the high cost of living pointing out that food and transportation effect the citizens most.
A participant at the summit, Chief John-Frank Okwudilichukwu Igwe commended the idea behind the gathering and appealed to the federal and state governments to listen to the people and reduce the suffering in the nation.
Igwe said the summit enriched participants on how to go about demanding for their rights a citizens and he hoped that the government will be able to implement the recommendation.
“What we need to do now is to stop the importation of what we can produce in the country. We need to increase food production. We must produce what we eat and what we wear for the country to survive,” Chief Igwe remarked.
