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Politics of Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Reps not impressed with FG’s conditional cash transfer, invite minister for questioning

Members of the representatives at the meeting Members of the representatives at the meeting

The House of Representatives have expressed their displeasure with the Federal Government ’s conditional cash transfer via the Social Investment Programme.

Questioning the manner in which money was shared, the reps invited the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management & Social Development, Sadiya Farouq to clarify the process.

At the meeting with the Minister, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila insisted on the need for the ministry to work with lawmakers who are closer to the people as their representatives.

“The questions are going to be asked, how do you come about your list, how comprehensive is your distribution list? What are the parameters? What is the geographical spread?

"If you really want to define the meaning of representation, if that was being practised in the real meaning of representation, then we shouldn’t be here. Because all the questions we want to ask, we should already have the answers," Gbajabiamila pointed out.



The Speaker who was seeking adherence to International Best Practices urged the Minister to abide by law.

"They are codified by the legislature so that these issues and these questions will not arise because right there.

"We as representatives to the people should be providing those answers to the Nigerian people we represent.

"But if they ask me, as the speaker of the House, or ask the Senate President or any of my colleagues here, we are going to be struggling for answers.

"If we were really representing, then we will not need to ask because we will have the answers, the relevant Committees in the House have been complaining bitterly even before the Minister took over the scheme about the inability to access information about the scheme," the Speaker explained.

He said Nigeria's SIP is similar to the Unemployment Insurance Act in the UK and the Social Security Act in the US.

"And then in the piece of legislation that is crafted, the parameters we are asking for is in the law, how you distribute is in the law. So it is not based on anybody’s whims and caprices or discretion of how he wants to distribute it," he concluded.