Many Nigerians including opposition
parties, civil society organisations and youths have said that the All
Progressives Congress senators’ opposition to the N5, 000 monthly
stipend promised unemployed youths by the ruling party is a sign that
the 25 million poor Nigerians may not get the welfare package promised
them by the APC.
The party, as part of its campaign
promises, prior to the March 28 presidential election, had vowed to
initiate a social welfare programme that would pay at least N5,000 to 25
million poorest and most vulnerable citizens, which would be tied to
the demonstration of their children’s enrollment in school and evidence
of immunisation to help promote family stability.
It also promised to pay N5, 000
allowance to unemployed university graduates after concluding the
National Youth Service Corps programme without securing a job.
The party further promised to provide
one meal a day for primary school pupils as part of its programme to
encourage school enrolment.
However, APC senators during the week
shot down a motion by Mr. Phillip Aduda of the Peoples Democratic Party
urging Buhari’s administration to fulfil the campaign promise to pay N5,
000 allowances to unemployed youths.
In view of this, opposition parties,
civil society organisations and youths, among other Nigerians, described
the action of the APC senators as a sign that Buhari’s administration
would not fulfil his other promises, especially the vow to N5, 000
monthly to each of the country’s 25 million most vulnerable people.
Going by its promise to assist 25
million indigent Nigerians, the administration will spend N125bn (that
is, N5, 000 x 25 million) in the first month of commencement of the
programme.
In a year, it will spend N1.5tn (N125bn x
12) on the programme and in four years, when the administration would
be ending its tenure, a total of N6tn (N1.5tn x 4) would have been spent
on the programme – an amount that is N1.6tn higher than the country’s
annual budget for 2014.
While the APC senators are believed to
have opposed the motion calling for payment of stipend to unemployment
youths because of the financial state of the nation, opposition parties,
CSOs, the labour union and youths are asking Buhari not to renege on
the promise.
While the initial promise by the party
was to pay N5, 000 monthly to 25 million most vulnerable Nigerians,
Buhari’s running mate at the last presidential election, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo (now Vice President), said during a TV programme, that the
payment would be done in batches of 5 million beneficiaries annually.
“We will give N5, 000 to the poorest 25
million over a phased period, if their children are enrolled in school
and participate in immunisation,” he said.
Osinbajo said it would cost about
N1.35tn to pay all 25 million people at once, which he said made the
party decide on paying in batches of five million people a year, adding
that the party could do more “depending on resources.”
The PDP had described the rejection of
the N5, 000 monthly stipend for the unemployed youths by the APC
senators as a sign that it never meant to keep any of its promises.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary,
Mr. Olisa Metuh, in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, described
the APC as a “party of hypocrites.”
He claimed that the party did not have the intention of honouring any of its campaign promises.
Metuh said, “The PDP declares that it is
absolutely obvious to all that the APC came to power riding on
monumental lies and deceit in making promises they had no intention to
keep.”
In the same vein, the National Secretary
of the Labour Party, Mr. Kayode Ajulo, expressed doubt that the APC
would honour its promise to indigent Nigerians, saying it had so far
shown a propensity to break promises.
He described Buhari’s recent claim that Nigeria was broke as a ploy by his administration to abandon its responsibilities.
He said, “The APC has sold Nigerians a
dummy; the party deceived Nigerians. The party’s attitude is
uncharitable. We should not believe that Nigeria is broke. The country
is not broke in the sense that as of today, we are still selling our
oil, though the price of the oil has gone down.
“The question is: what is the benchmark on which the country’s budget is based? And how much is Nigeria selling the oil?
“Secondly, paying the poorest of the
poor was not the only promise made by Buhari and the APC. The President
promised Nigerians many things, but it’s unfortunate that he has failed
to fulfil them, which is why I said he is uncharitable to Nigerians.
“It is unfortunate that somebody will
make promises and fail to fulfil them. Governance is a social contract
which requires that every party to the contract must fulfil his part.”
Also, the National Chairman of the Unity
Party of Nigeria, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, described both the APC and its
promise to pay N5, 000 to 25 million Nigerians as “deceptive.”
Fasehun asked Nigerians to hold Buhari’s administration accountable for the failed promise.
He said, “I have not seen or heard of
any promise made pre-election by the APC which it has fulfilled
post-election. I know the party was only deceiving the people when it
made that promise.
“They came in and said the treasury was
empty. So, how can you pay N5, 000 to millions of poor Nigerians out of
an empty treasury? They have been deceiving us and will continue to do
so until we caution them. They don’t need to govern us with lies; they
should tell us the truth. They only deceived the Nigerian people to get
to power and now that they are in power, they don’t even know what to do
with it.”
In his view, National Conscience Party
presidential candidate in the last elections, Chief Martin Onovo, said
he did not expect Buhari to carry out the welfare programme since he has
denied his party’s campaign promises.
Onovo said, “Buhari has denied all the
promises he was said to have made. It is a matter of integrity; he has
denied all the promises made by his party and his campaign organisation.
So, it will be improper to expect Buhari to fulfil a promise when he
has denied that he ever made one.
“Even Buhari has denied the promises
posted on the APC’s website. The first thing is to confirm that he made
the promises before anyone can begin to hold him accountable for them.”
The General Secretary of the Nigeria
Labour Congress, Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said politicians had been known to
fail on keeping promises, while urging the President to fulfil his
party’s promises.
He said, “You know politicians, they
make promises during campaigns and when the reality comes, they realise
that it is not always the same to deliver on all they have promised. I
think if Nigerians are to take politicians seriously, it is important
that they keep to their word.
“First of all, even when the campaign
promise was made, what struck was did we have the database or
information base to be able to implement that policy? It is important
that when politicians make promises, that we are critical in evaluating
those promises. We ought to be able to see if they are realistic or
not.”
The spokesperson for the Ijaw Youth
Congress Worldwide, Mr. Eric Omare, also described most of the campaign
promises made by the APC as “unrealistic.”
He said the party’s insincerity was obvious because it failed to show clear ways by which to achieve its welfare programme.
Omare said, “The promises were
deliberately made to deceive Nigerians into voting the party into power.
So, there was no intention from the outset to fulfil those promises
because most of the APC members have been in government and therefore
had an idea of what was going on in the government.”
Omare criticised the APC senators for
their recent action, saying, “Even if the APC cannot fulfil that promise
because of the present economic situation, its leadership has a
responsibility to explain that it is our promise to provide N5, 000 to
these sets of people but because of the prevailing economic circumstance
in this country, we can’t fulfil this promise.
However, the National President,
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, Mr. Okechukwu Isiguzoro, called for the
resignation of President Buhari and other APC political office holders
should the administration fail to honour its campaign promises to
Nigerians.
He said, “If it was a ploy to deceive
Nigerians by raising their hope, using the change slogan, then the APC
people in government should resign. If they cannot keep their electoral
promises, it is better for them to resign and leave the position for
people who are ready to listen to the yearnings of Nigerians and treat
them right.”
Chairman of the Northern Elders Council,
Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, also said that the APC administration would not
be able to fulfil the promise on social welfare.
He said, “The APC-led government cannot
fulfil it because it will cost a lot of money and it did not work out
all the cost. If you want to do something like this, you must have a
blueprint on how to achieve it, but the government does have any
blueprint.”
The Spokesman for the Northern Elders
Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, refused to comment on the issue, saying he
had decided to stop commenting on political issues till December.
“So you have to pardon me; no comments from me for now,” he said.
The President of the Arewa Youths
Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, told one of our
correspondents on the telephone that he was busy and promised to call
back.
He, however, did not call back as of the time of filing this report.
The recent action of the APC senators triggered uproar on social media by Nigerians who are mostly youths.
On twitter, the #Our5k has been
trending in the past few days, with many of the comments critical of
the APC administration for its failure to start the payment of N5, 000
to unemployed so far, as promised.
Also, on nairaland.com, the situation has been the same.
For instance, @TobeAsomugha tweeted: “We
have learnt from @APCNigeria that not all promises are meant to be
kept. Most of them, like #Our5k were mere beer parlour talks”
@ebuka_akara also tweeted: “Dearest @APCNigeria, pay us #Our5k with 5 months arrears ASAP!!! That’s N25,000. Debtors.”
On nairaland.com, someone
identified as GEJmustGO, said, “Is this not a conspiracy? Why will the
APC senators be the ones to reject the payment of N5, 000 monthly
allowance to unemployed youths? Did they forget that it was Baba Buhari
and Papa Osinbanjo who made that promise?”
Similarly, a poll organised by SIGNAL,
an online newspaper, asking Nigerians to vote either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to
the demand by youths for the Federal Government to implement its promise
to pay stipend to unemployed graduates recorded 592 votes in 24 hours.
Seventy-nine per cent voted ‘Yes’, while
21 per cent voted ‘No’. However, the APC National Publicity Secretary
of the Party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has refuted claims that the party
would renege on its promises, saying it was fully committed to
fulfilling its promise to pay social security to 25 million vulnerable
Nigerians.
Mohammed said in a statement he issued in Abuja on Friday, while reacting to an earlier statement by the PDP.
He urged Nigerians to ignore the
“mischievous” attempt by the PDP to confuse and mislead them on the
issue, saying his party had devised creative means to pay the money and
also fulfil its other campaign promises to Nigerians.
The statement explained that the
non-implementation of the payment policy so far was because it was not
included in the 2015 budget, which was prepared by the PDP-led
administration, and also because of the need to first block all
financial leakages.
“Contrary to the wrong information being
peddled by the PDP, the Buhari administration is poised to lift
millions of Nigerians out of extreme poverty by providing social
protection and safety nets with another N2.5tn Special Intervention
Fund,” the party said.
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