THE Federal Government has approved routing 20 per cent of its food palliative intervention through religious and traditional institutions nationwide.
Besides, the government will channel 20 per cent of the funds for its school feeding programme through the country’s religious bodies.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima revealed these during his keynote address at a high-level dialogue of faith leaders on nutrition in Nigeria, held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, April 24.
He made the disclosures while responding to some religious and traditional leaders’ concerns over the exclusion of traditional and religious leaders by the Federal Government in its programmes.
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Shettima said: “The Imam of Bayero University (BUK) mentioned the exclusion of the traditional and religious leaders in the distribution of palliatives.
” The President has approved that 20 per cent of the palliative in terms of food intervention be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions.
“The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such intervention.”
He further mentioned that the government was working out the logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to facilitate the seamless execution of the intervention.
According to him, the intervention will be anchored in the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, who will also join in the programme’s anchor.
“We are going to provide the overall supervision towards the implementation of the programme.
Shettima also stated that the government had initiated engagements and was formulating procedures for the intervention to guarantee transparent disbursement, adding that the programme would include Tsangaya and mission schools.
The ICIR reports that many Nigerians have continued to grapple with the impact of fuel subsidy removal and market inflation despite the palliatives promised by the federal government in 2023 to cushion the effects of the economic hardship.
The palliatives include the conditional cash transfer of N25,000 to households, N35,000 wage increment for workers, N75 billion to strengthen the manufacturing sector, and N125 billion to empower the micro, small and medium enterprises.
The government also approved N5 billion for each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to address the lingering hardship faced by the citizens, among other palliatives.
Many Nigerians have said they did not get or see anyone benefit from the palliatives.
Besides, investigations by The ICIR also revealed that some internally displaced persons and poor Nigerians did not receive the palliatives in Benue state.
This was as the Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP) issued state governors a seven-day ultimatum in September 2023 to publish the spending details of the N2 billion palliative interventions disbursed to them by the Federal Government.
“We’ve given Nigeria’s 36 state governors seven days to publish details on the spending of the N72 billion fuel subsidy palliative disbursed to them by the Federal Government, including the names of beneficiaries and the reliefs provided with the money,” SERAP said.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org