By Halimah Olamide
The National Economic Council (NEC) has directed that each state of the federation should come up with its comprehensive Social Register for vulnerable people.
NEC, at its meeting in Abuja on Thursday, said this would enable the government identify the real beneficiaries of government’s Cash Transfer programme.
Analysts have seen this as an indirect indictment and rejection of the register used to operate the scheme under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Gov. Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, made this known while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the NEC meeting, chaired by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
He said NEC resolved that the states should come up with their own registers, using formal and informal means to develop it.
He said that all beneficiaries at the subnational level could easily be identified that way.
“We need to face the problem of the fact that we don’t have a credible register,” he said.
Soludo affirmed that NEC also deliberated on ways to cushion the impact of the recent petroleum subsidy removal.
“The first question that was raised was in relation to cost of governance. I think it’s an omnibus concept, and it’s not something you sit down in a meeting to legislate for each and every state.
“But the fact is that the council recognizes that this is an issue that each tier of government should now focus on as an area of concern.
NPO Reports that the conditional cash transfer scheme was dogged with many criticisms as many believed that beneficiaries were not properly identified.
An advocacy group in Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had filed a lawsuit asking the Federal High Court in Lagos to compel President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to publicize details of N729 billion payments to 24.3 million Nigerians under the transfer scheme.
SERAP had demanded details of the mechanisms and logistics, a list of beneficiaries, how they were selected, and whether the payments were/will be made in cash or through Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs).
SERAP said disclosing the details of beneficiaries, selection criteria and payment would promote accountability and remove the risks of diversion of funds.
The suit numbered FHC/L/CS/853/2021 seeks clarification on whether the CCT payments are part of the N5.6 trillion budget deficit.
SERAP had argued that to spend five percent of a budget mostly based on deficit and borrowing requires anti-corruption safeguards to ensure the monies go directly to the intended beneficiaries.
The suit filed by Kolawole Oluwadare and Opeyemi Owolabi regretted how the government repeatedly failed to ensure transparency in the spending of public wealth and resources.
They stressed that the right to truth allows Nigerians to gain access to information essential to the fight against corruption.
“Democracy cannot flourish in the absence of citizen’s access to information. Public officers are mere custodians of public records.
“The citizenry is entitled to know how their common wealth is being utilized, managed and administered”, the lawyers said.