Nigerians from all walks of life under the aegis of the Citizens Hub have called on the National Assembly to provide a robust legislative framework as well as exhaustive oversight of the social investment programme of government, especially the on-going distribution of palliatives to poor and vulnerable households to cushion the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
The Citizens Hub also demanded that the government at state and federal levels take advantage of the current pandemic to ensure the preparation and/or update of a reliable and disaggregated data of citizens and residents to help planning and implementation of programmes.
These resolutions were reached after exhaustive virtual deliberations of the Hub on the palliatives programme. Dr. Haruna Dabin, mni; Dr. Cosmas Anyakudo; and Mr. Longe Omolaja signed the resolutions on behalf of the Citizens Hub and released it for public dissemination May 11, 2020. Citizens Hub is a citizen engagement platform hosted by OrderPaper, Nigeria’s people-parliament interface organization. It comprises Nigerians from all walks of life who share aspiration of a Nigeria that works for all Nigerians irrespective of tribe, status, or religion.
The resolution document read thus: “In the wake of COVID-19 and the ensuing cash transfer program as a palliative from the Federal Government, Members of the CITIZENS HUB deliberated the intervention both in reach and coverage and the following resolutions were reached:
- Nigeria as a nation must ensure full documentation of citizens and residents. This pandemic has exposed the dearth of accurate statistics on the different useful categories in the country. There should be a long term deliberate effort to generate accurate, current and robust statistics on all the sections and segments of the nation.
- State Governments should be encouraged and supported towards documentation of their poorest of the poor.
- A general push for all states to be covered in the cash transfer program and the scope to be widened.
- The National Assembly is called upon to provide a legislative framework for the Social Investment Initiative that every forward looking nation should endeavour to provide for its citizens. The outcome of the oversight activities of the NASS on the spread of the palliatives should we widely publicised.
Below is the current distribution per states, household and beneficiaries data of poor citizens:
S/N State Houeholds Individuals
1 Abia 41246 152605
2 Adamawa 52471 196401
3 AkwaIbom 95867 405822
4 Anambra 43146 121539
5 Bauchi 47712 275007
6 Bayelsa 51727 184876
7 Benue 141983 628463
8 Borno 7130 33728
9 Cross River 27604 148482
10 Delta 30338 80644
11 Ebonyi
12 Edo 43260 144676
13 Ekiti 15119 51865
14 Enugu 6886 27013
15 FCT 41485 156260
16 Gombe 31982 156553
17 Imo 24426 82216
18 Jigawa 168542 656757
19 Kaduna 90794 358486
20 Kano 151315 763919
21 Katsina 176724 807200
22 Kebbi 219102 932460
23 Kogi 96646 447470
24 Kwara 96335 417358
25 Lagos 14434 52319
26 Nasarawa 149693 542774
27 Niger 63957 329593
28 Ogun
29 Ondo 25312 89519
30 Osun 64931 218872
31 Oyo 28382 99569
32 Plateau 156058 585289
33 Rivers 73601 267812
34 Sokoto 3347 18435
35 Taraba 39646 106691
36 Yobe 31665 163711
37 Zamfara 291629 1341153
*Source: National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO)
*Date: Data retrieved on April 24, 2020
