The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Thursday, asked the federal government to disclose the full list of beneficiaries of the N330 billion reportedly disbursed to poor Nigerians under the cash transfer programme.
The call comes amidst government’s claims that millions of citizens had been lifted out of poverty through social safety net schemes managed by the National Social Safety-net Coordinating Office (NASSCO).
Speaking with LEADERSHIP, NLC’s acting general secretary, Comrade Benson Upah, questioned the transparency of the cash transfer initiative, noting that government pronouncements must be backed by credible evidence.
Upah argued that for the sake of accountability, Nigerians deserve verifiable proof of the disbursements.
He further criticised what he described as “banditry with statistics”, accusing government of announcing large-scale poverty alleviation figures without corresponding evidence.
“They should let them line up, in advanced economies, if you say you have created social jobs, you show the jobs. It’s not that you just go to the media and say you have created social jobs, they will check, so we want to see the beneficiaries.
“When you say you have lifted millions of people, where are they, where are the people you have given so much to, they should publish the recipients?” he said.
“So, if we have to copy, let us copy wisely and intelligently because for every activity, there is an audience and the Nigerian audience is not a stupid audience, it is highly enlightened, I tell you,” he added.
The NLC official maintained that publishing the names of recipients would help restore public confidence in the government’s anti-poverty drive, which many Nigerians believed has done little to cushion the impact of inflation and rising living costs.
“Government should come with proof of the beneficiaries of their social safety nets and those millions it claims to have lifted out of poverty. Rather, people think it has driven more millions into poverty,” he stated.
Recall that the federal government had through the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun, earlier announced that it disbursed N330 billion to vulnerable households through NASSCO’s social register.
Edun noted that the cash transfers were done from an $800 million facility of the World Bank.
