Mrs Nneka Anibeze, Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

She stated that the objective of the policy was to have a society where senior citizens were guaranteed security, independence, participation, comprehensive care, self-fulfilment and dignity.

“It covers intersecting spectrum of issues and opportunities for older women and men in urban and rural settings, older persons living with disabilities, older migrants and  internally displaced older persons.

“It also covers poor older persons and older persons that are full of vigour contributing to the progress of families, communities and the larger society,” she said.

Anibeze explained that Farouq in her presentation at the Federal Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday stated that the objective of seeking the approval of the council was to uphold the rights and dignity of seniors.

Farouq added that that could be achieved by providing an age-friendly environment for them to maximise their potentials for self-fulfilment.

This, she said, would cause a fundamental positive change in perception and attitude about ageing and an inclusive society.

“We seek approval for the Ageing and Older Persons policy to guarantee an improved quality of life for senior citizens in Nigeria.

“To also strengthen the traditional support systems for them, to provide the framework for the regulatory mechanism on ageing issues, to guarantee adequate and sustainable income, security and healthy ageing.

“In addition, to ensure that the fundamental human rights of older persons are upheld and protected and to develop a functional data management system for effective research, planning, monitoring and evaluation of ageing programming,” Farouq said.

The development of the policy document on Ageing for Older Persons in Nigeria began in 2018 under the then Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

Source: NAN

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This was made known by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the minister said beneficiaries in batches A and B had been taken care of.

Her words: “Last week I promised that the stipends would be paid this week.

“We encountered some delays on the GIFMIS platform but I can now announce that all N-Power beneficiaries from Batch A and B have been paid their April stipends.

“We are working hard to streamline the programme for greater efficiency and to provide opportunities for more Nigerian youths.

“Details will be provided as soon as May stipend has been paid.”

N-Power was started as a federal government programme in 2016 to lift citizens out of poverty through capacity building, investment and direct support.

No fewer than 500,000 persons have benefitted front the programme.

While Batch A has 200,000, those in Batch B which starged in 2018 are 300,000.

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Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar-Farouk, gave  the commendation on Wednesday when she led a team to Imo State government to present some relief materials from the Federal Government.

During the visit, which had Minister of States, Education, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba, in attendance, Governor Uzodimma in turn applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the palliative measures being put in place to alleviate the sufferings of the people at this trying time of coronavirus pandemic.

Governor Uzodinma thanked President Buhari for harkening to the cries of the people.

He acknowledged that the lockdown and restriction of movement, which had helped greatly in containing the virus had strangulated economic activities, and called on the minister to ensure that the Federal Government conditional cash transfer got to the right citizens of the state.

His words: “Our concern is that this well thought out measure of the Federal Government must be appreciated by the people. They can only appreciate it if the impact is visible and seen. Therefore, I urge you to please take a second look at the social register and affirm whether the beneficiaries of the programme are Imo people and whether the message is getting to the target.”

Governor Uzodinma expressed concern that from the reports he was getting from the people, the supposed impact was not being felt the way it should be.

He noted that Imo State had 27 Local Governments and 305 wards and wondered why the programme had been domiciled only in nine local governments since 2018.

“To say the least, it’s not very fair and does not make the programme very popular,” the governor said.

Furthermore, Governor Uzodinma assured that Imo being the centre of APC in the South East would continue to support the Federal Government in its programmes and urged the ministry to fashion out ways to involve the rural people in the 305 wards of the state so that the programme would be effectively and efficiently carried out to make it a success.

Hajia Umar-Farouk applauded the efforts of the state government in the fight against COVID-19, especially in the provision of relief materials to the less-privileged in the rural areas.

She noted that following the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari to expand the safety net programmes to include more vulnerable people whose conditions were at risk as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry had commenced two-month advance payment of N20,000 for the conditional cash transfer to existing beneficiaries on the National Social Register.

The amount, the minister said, covered the period of January to April 2020.

While stating that payments to beneficiaries in Imo State had commenced, Umar-Farouk noted that 110,202 beneficiaries had been paid in seven states across the nation.

The minister appreciated the governor for assisting the downtrodden in the rural areas and presented relief materials to the state government, imploring the governor to consider especially the poor and vulnerable, including persons living with disabilities to cushion the effect of the economic crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed their reservations about the scheme at a meeting held on Tuesday with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq and some top officials of the ministry.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, and some other principal officers and members from both chambers.

The meeting convened by the leadership of the National Assembly against the backdrop of the ongoing Federal Government intervention initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the most vulnerable Nigerians.

Lawan and Gbajabiamila made it clear that the Social Investment Programme which was established in 2016 under the Presidency but which is now under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs needed a reform to make it more efficient and effective.

In his opening remarks, Lawan said the National Assembly was very much interested in the current intervention initiatives of the ministry particularly with respect to the disbursement aimed at assuaging the plight of the poorest of the poor Nigerians against COVID-19.

“We feel that we need to work together with you to ensure that there is effectiveness, there is efficiency, that those who are supposed to benefit, benefit directly,” Lawan said.

The Senate President said the National Assembly was concerned about the conditions and guidelines for the intervention programmes which were specifically directed at the most vulnerable Nigerians.

“When for example, some conditions are set, that those who will benefit will have to go online, through the internet or BVN and the rest of it.

“I want to tell you that the majority of those who are supposed to benefit have no access to power. They have no access to Internet. They have no bank account, so no BVN.

“Infact, many of them don’t even have phones and these are the poorest of the poor. Yet, some of the conditions or guidelines which you set inadvertently leave them out,” Lawan said.

The Senate President said the poorest of the poor have not been sufficiently captured by the programme.

“We believe that when we work together, the Executive side of government and the National Assembly as representatives of the people, we will be able to reach much more of these people who are in serious distress even before the Coronavirus.

“Now with Coronavirus, they need our attention more than ever before. The time has come that we review the ways and manner we use to deliver the services under the SIP to Nigerians.

“We need to be better in terms of strategy for delivery and definitely, what we have been doing in the past cannot deliver exactly what will solve the challenges of the most ordinary and most vulnerable Nigerians.

“So we need to put on our thinking cap and work out some strategies on how to identify the poorest persons in Nigeria. I think we have not been able to reach far out there to get them properly captured,” Lawan said.

Speaking in the same vein, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Gbajabiamila told the minister that she was in the eye of the storm because all eyes were on her.

“Your job right now, is probably the most important as we speak, because you are saddled with the responsibility of alleviating ‘poverty’ or the hardship, due to no fault of anyone, being thrust upon Nigerians, and I know that you came into a system, or you met a system that has nothing to do with you, but what we will be asking you to do is for you to change that system.

“When you walk into a system, no system is 100 per cent perfect. The word reform is something we use all the time, and this is the one time when that word reform must be used in the truest sense of that word.

“The questions are going to be asked, how do you come about your list? How comprehensive is your distribution list? What are the parameters? What is the geographical spread? So these are tough questions that are going to be asked but I want you to look at them as frank questions that we need to ask.

“If you really want to define the meaning of representation, if that was being practised in the real meaning of representation, then we shouldn’t be here. Because all the questions we want to ask, we should already have the answers. We should be providing those answers to the Nigerian people we represent.

“But if they ask me, as the Speaker of the House, or ask the Senate President or any of my colleagues here, we are going to be struggling for answers. If we were really representing, then we will not need to ask because we will have the answers,” Gbajabiamila said.

The Speaker said the relevant committees in the House had been complaining bitterly even before the minister took over the scheme about the inability to access information about the scheme.

Gbajabiamila said Nigeria’s SIP was similar to the Unemployment Insurance Act in the UK and the Social Security Act in the US.

“There is a lot of take away from this COVID-19. One of them is the International Best Practices. My point is that these things are backed by law. They are codified by the legislature so that these issues and these questions will not arise,” he said.

The Speaker urged the minister to talk with the relevant committees and the National Assembly leadership on the best way to codify the SIP.

In her response, the minister said the SIP was moved to her ministry for “sustainability and institutionalization.”

“I am very pleased to hear that we are going to work together to see that we give a legal backing to this programme because that is the only way to go,” the minister said.

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