From Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja
Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila are pushing for the review and the deepening of the Social Investment Programme (SIP).
They were at the State House on Tuesday where they held a closed-doors meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at work.
According to them, they also advocated for legislation on the fight against poverty.
They said the National Assembly will be ready to reconvene any time to address the issue of the N500 billion stimulus package proposed by the Buhari administration to cushion the effects of COVID-19.
Briefing State House reporters, Lawan called for a review in the implementation of the SIP to enable the programme to reach more Nigerians, especially the category of people for which the SIP was introduced.
On the need for reform in the administration of SIP, the Senate President said having been operated for more than four years, the programme ought to naturally be subjected to review, so that its efficiency and suitability could be revalued and reevaluated.
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He said: “We also believe that it is time to reform the way and manner we implement the social investment programme, this is a very important programme that is meant to help poor and vulnerable Nigerians and we believe that having implemented it for four years or more, we should be reviewing to evaluate the efficacy efficiency with which we have been implementing the programme.
“I believe that we also need to legislate on how to fight poverty in Nigeria because this is one issue that has been there for quite some time and therefore there is need for us to have a very clear and well spelt out processes and procedures on how to tackle poverty.
“There should be very little or no room for discretion so that we have a programme that will be very transparent and should go deep down to those who really deserve to have the support and should be such an equitable and fair programme as far the geographical spread across the country is concerned.”
Speaking on the issue of the management of the various donations to fight the spread of COVID-19, Lawan called for more coordination.
He said: “The leadership of the National Assembly has been holding series of meetings with ministers and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Control and this (yesterday) afternoon, we had an engagement with the President to discuss with him what we have resolved as leaders of the National Assembly and our opinion on various issues regarding the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria as well as going forward.
“For example, the various donations that we are receiving should go into a single account and should have a fund management committee that would be in charge of releases. Accountability and transparency require that we have that separation.
“It is also an opportunity for us to commend Nigerians and corporate bodies that have given us donations but we believe there should be more coordination as far as the management of the funds donated is concerned.”
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