An Npower National Programme beneficiary from Yobe State, Mallam Sani Garba, had lamented at a meeting with government officials in Abuja about pains from the nine months delay in payment of his stipend.
The delay had generated so much anxiety among the beneficiaries that tempers had begun to rise, and a nationwide protest was in the offing.
Garba said at the meeting with the Npower manager, Dr Akindele Egbuwalo, that he and other beneficiaries of the programme in different clusters were so frustrated that they were already planning a protest.
Elsewhere, Mary Enanya-Hyacinth, a 34-year-old mother of four children, had been waiting for her stipend to continue her sachet water and recharge card businesses which she does in front of her one room apartment at Kabusa area of the Federal Capital Territory.
Mary recently left hospital after treatment for ulcer and low blood pressure. She supports her husband, Hyacinth, a commercial motorcycle operator, with the stipend. Tony, as he is popularly known, recently lost his bike to armed robbers. He had picked two male passengers at about 11pm on a rainy night and midway to their destination, the sturdy passengers drew out daggers, pushed him into the bush and made away with his motorcycle, his only source of putting food on the table, paying rent and others.
Mary was left with no choice than wait for her Npower stipend, and she has been patient but grumbling quietly for months.
Before the meeting with Dr Egbuwalo, the Npower manager, little did Garba and his group know that the federal government was set to commence payment of the nine months backlog.
The manager said the programme was only suspended in order to address matters affecting beneficiaries with keen focus on delayed payment.
He said as a result of the suspension of the programme for thorough restructuring and forensic audit, funds had been recovered from the existing payment service providers with plans to start disbursement of the outstanding stipends from November 2023, albeit in installments.
A relieved Garba then told the manager at the Abuja meeting; “Myself and other clusters of beneficiaries represented here have understood your position and taken your assurances, there is no need for any protest anymore.”
The beneficiaries expressed delight with the assurances given for better implementation of the programme, especially as they were told that no one would be left behind in the renewed hope agenda of government with a new name; Renewed Hope Job Creation Programme (RHJCP) under the supervision of the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, and expanded to target five million beneficiaries in five years whereby one million youths will be absorbed each year under the graduate and non-graduate streams.
The relief brought to Garba and his colleagues is just one of the interventions of the new ministry under Dr Beta Edu to facilitate humanitarian access for Nigerians, and in furtherance of its mandate to develop policies and provide effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions; ensure strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response; and manage the formulation and implementation of fair focused social inclusion and protection programmes.
In furtherance of this, Dr Edu has announced new cluster heads under the national social safety net programme in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, saying the changes became necessary to give new energy and sense of direction with desired results as there should be no tolerance for excuse or failure.
She said the N-power and other social safety-net programmes were rolled out to create jobs, and not pains For Nigerians.
Edu said with over 70 million extremely poor people living below 1.95 US cents per day, it was clear that the old strategies must give way to a practical and sustainable approach.
“The priority under the Renewed Hope Agenda aims at lifting 133 million Nigerians out of multi-dimensional poverty. We are restructuring the programmes under the National Social Investment Programme to bring speed and realignment to the new mandate …things must change and be done differently to get better results,” she said.
Speaking against the backdrop of discoveries made after preliminary investigations on how the N-Power programme was run in the past,
the minister said an audit would lead to an expanded programme to accommodate more less privileged Nigerians, among them people living with disability.
These people will be given more opportunities to contribute to nation building starting from her ministry, she said.
She said studies had shown that persons with disabilities are more likely to experience extreme poverty than those without disability, hence the directive of the president to expand the social register to capture more people in that bracket.
Edu has pursued her mandate with vigor and determination from the onset of her tenure, as if being pursued by a lion.
Overtime, Nigerians had faced circumstances that require sustained effort at entrenching effective and proactive social protection systems that are humane and inclusive for their general wellbeing. From natural disasters to insurgency and banditry, repatriation from other countries and general poor living conditions occasioned by poverty, citizens have faced challenges that need full brace as the minister has so far demonstrated.
Many Nigerians have, therefore, not been left in doubt about Dr Edu’s zeal to fashion out an all-inclusive humanitarian access system, bringing it to the doors-steps of even the poorest.
Edu has so demonstrated a deep sense of duty and empathy, representing a pragmatic leader with the impulsiveness to change things for the better, especially for the needy.
For instance, in a first of its kind effort, Dr Edu recently announced the federal government’s inclusion of vulnerable ex-servicemen, widows and dependants of fallen heroes in the National Social Register to benefit from the conditional cash transfer and other social intervention programs.
She said the government had expanded the welfare scheme to accommodate those classes of people in an innovation that became necessary to include those who paid the supreme price for the country’s peace, just as it would boost the morale of those still in service.
People forced out of their homes and ancestral lands are not left out under the new dispensation, as Dr Edu has shown empathy by pressing for provision of decent homes for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Hundreds of families at the Bulumkutu rehabilitation camp in Maiduguri, Borno State, got a lifeline when she distributed to them, food items as part of the federal government’s relief package to support them.
She met inhabitants of the camp, including 14 rescued Chibok girls and their children.
Edu assured that the gesture would be extended to other IDP Camps in the state.
Food items distributed to them included hundreds of bags of rice, maize, beans, garri, vegetable oil, seasoners and other food items. She pledged that the federal government would not leave them unattended, assuring that she would be visiting them periodically.
In Zamfara State, just like in some other states like Niger and Borno, many people were displaced, including an old woman with four children who lost her home as a result of banditry, and took refuge in a forest.
To confront such challenge, the minister recently handed over 40 completed houses at the resettlement city built by the refugees commission to the IDPs at Gidan Dawa area of Gusau, the state capital, with promise to provide more shelter for displaced persons across the country.
“A new dawn has birthed, and their stories will change, moving forward,” she said.
In order to ensure that intervention programmes are grassroots-oriented to resonate with many poor Nigerians living in rural communities, the minister recently unveiled a new communication strategy with the introduction of door-to- door community engagements, saying the new strategy must be adopted to achieve the desired result from the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
Edu said door-to-door communication and community-to-community interactions through village heads and traditional rulers were necessary to reach more communities and by extension, more people.
Nigeria’s older citizens have also come under focus to prevent them from slipping below the poverty line.
At an event to commemorate the international and national day of older persons organised by her ministry through the National Senior Citizens’ Centre in partnership with the United Nations, Edu described Nigeria’s older citizens as the federal government’s priority which must be protected.
She said President Tinubu had directed that her ministry should set aside 10 percent of social safety net intervention programmes for older persons in the country.
According to her, the right of senior citizens in job security, health, livelihood, agriculture and other development planning must be considered.
She said: “Presently, older persons are said to be about 14.8 million out of the entire population. All citizens at all levels must be protected. And that’s why President Bola Tinubu has rightly directed that in all our social welfare interface, which is the social safety net, we must ensure the protection of all Nigerians including older citizens and prevent them from slipping below the poverty line.”
An emotional Edu met with rescued students of the Federal University, Gusau and assured them of improved security and humanitarian response to support their recovery process.
Bandits had seized 25 female students of the university from their hostels, but 16 were rescued by security forces.
Speaking when she visited the students in Gusau, the minister said both the federal and state governments were working to improve security, and urged them not to be deterred by the incident but continue to pursue their education, and where necessary, government would rehabilitate and fully reintegrate them to continue their studies.
Pensioners too have not been forgotten as the ministry will begin payment of N25,000 grants to members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners captured in the expanded National Social Register of the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme in demonstration of President Tinubu’s commitment to labour leaders.
The recognition of these and other efforts have triggered encouragement and desire for partnership with the ministry in order to drive home humanitarian assistance to the needy.
Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu described Dr Edu as energetic and a “round peg in a round hole” who hit the ground running from day one.
He said she is a perfect fit for the ministry.
Samwo-Olu spoke during a visit by the minister at the Government House in Marina.
The United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates have pledged support for humanitarian and poverty alleviation efforts in the country.
The development director at the British High Commission, Dr Christopher Pycrof, said during a visit to Dr Edu in her office that the British government would place at her disposal any assistance required to succeed in the mandate.
Similarly, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Nigeria, Salem Saeed Al- Shamsi, during a visit by Dr Edu in his office, expressed readiness to contribute to every effort that would lead to reduction of humanitarian crises and eradicate poverty in Nigeria.
Dr Edu says no fewer than 8.3 million Nigerians are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, as part of the 16 million Nigerians affected by various humanitarian crises. It can only take the dogged determination as so far exhibited by the minister to undertake such a huge task.
