The house of Representatives has asked President Bola Tinubu
to mandate Wale Edun, minister of finance, to unfreeze all accounts of the
National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA) within 72 hours.
The lower legislative chamber passed the resolution during
plenary on Tuesday.
This was sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by
Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker, and 20 other lawmakers.
The programmes under SIP include N-Power, conditional cash
transfer (CCT), government enterprise and empowerment programme, and the
home-grown school feeding initiative.
The parliament said unfreezing the accounts of the NSIPA
will enable the “smooth” recommencement of all the programmes.
The lower legislative chamber also asked the president to
ensure the release of funds to NSIPA for the payment of outstanding stipends
owed to
395,731 N-Power beneficiaries nationwide “without further
delay”.
BACKGROUND
In 2023, former President Muhammadu Buhari enacted a law to
establish the NSIP — an agency that has been mired in corruption since the turn
of the year.
On January 2, Tinubu suspended Halima Shehu as the chief
executive officer (CEO) of NSIPA, over alleged financial malfeasance.
On January 8, the president also suspended Betta Edu as minister
of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.
The humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation ministry
supervises the operations of the NSIPA.
On January 12, the president suspended all programmes
administered by NSIPA as part of a probe of alleged mismanagement of the agency
and its programmes.
On March 13, the house of representatives asked the federal
government to resume the implementation of the suspended social investment
initiatives.
The senate is considering a bill seeking to place the NSIPA
under the supervision of the presidency.
Tinubu has since appointed Badamasi Lawal to replace Shehu.
THE MOTION
Moving the motion, Kalu said despite the importance of the
social investment programmes for poverty alleviation, youth empowerment, and
economic inclusivity in Nigeria, the agency’s functionality has been hindered
due to administrative bottlenecks, insufficient funding, and frozen accounts.
“The smooth operations of the programmes and the fulfilment
of the mandate of NSIPA are hindered due to the suspension/ freezing of the
accounts of the agency and other administrative bottlenecks, which has remained
in force even more than 3 months after the President reconstituted the new management
of NSIPA,” he said.
The deputy speaker said the frozen accounts contradicts
Tinubu’s mandate on poverty alleviation, eroding public confidence and
“administrative paralysis in fighting poverty”.
“As a result of the suspension of accounts of the NSIPA, the
N-Power programme has been so negatively affected that 395,731 beneficiaries
are owed outstanding stipends to the tune of N81,315, 440,000 — a fund already
captured under the 2023 and 2024 amended Appropriation Acts which will lapse by
the year ending 31st December, 2024,” Kalu said.
He said restoring NSIPA’s accounts aligns with the
president’s vision, ensuring that poverty alleviation efforts remain effective,
efficient, and impactful and that it is essential to act swiftly to resolve
this issue to maintain momentum toward the administration’s poverty eradication
goals.
The parliament also asked the president to reopen all the
warehouses of NSIPA nationwide.
The motion was unanimously adopted when it was subjected to
a voice by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house.
Following that, the house agreed to transmit the resolution
to the senate for concurrence.
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