Why I See The N5,000 Social Welfare Payment As Waste And Damage To Nigeria’s Reputation

Editor’s note: Adelaja Adeoye, a Lagos-based blogger and a commentator on social and political issues, pours out his thoughts on the proposal to allocate part of the N500 billion, intended for social development, for “the most vulnerable” population segments.

The proposed plan of the federal government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari to commence payment of N5,000 social welfare to about 25 million Nigerians is a plan one must critically and objectively look into before jumping into praising the government.

It was widely reported in most Nigerian dailies on 8th of December that President Buhari has proposed to allocate about N500 billion for the social welfare scheme from the N6.2 trillion for the 2016 budget. The question we must ask is, will paying N5,000 to each of the 25 million Nigerians mean way forward for us as a country at this perilous time?

To make a difference, challenge decisions made by authorities

Many Nigerians tend to disagree with President Buhari on many of his policies and his style of governance.

In any part of Nigeria, the kind of discussions you’ll hear at the news stand about this current government will amuse you. You will begin to wonder if we are indeed in a change era of short-changed time. You will hear the opinion of people about this initiative of social welfare.

Many people do not want for the nation to be mismanaged as it had been by the past administrations since the inception of democracy. People want a change in terms of clear economy revamping policy direction, not tokenism as proposed by Buhari government.

My own opinion is that, instead of government of tokenism, it should be the government of massive wealth creation. The government can create more millionaires with the N500 billion voted for tokenism in the budget.

Start asking questions

One may wonder what yardstick the Buhari government intends to use in determining those who are vulnerable in Nigeria. Does the government already have the records of these people? What method does the government plan to use in capturing their details? How would the government identify genuine people who really need the money? Is the program sustainable? How far can it go and are there any exit plans?

There are lots of questions one should begin to ask about how government intends to implement the tokenism system called social welfare scheme, and to what effect.

Nigeria actually needs wealth creation system and not tokenism. What the government plans to do is not so different from the Almajiri system in the Northern Nigeria where people are used to get money from others, not wanting to work or incapacitated to work.

Nigeria is not a Soviet or communist state where a citizen must depend on the government for money to survive. The business of a government is provision of basic infrastructure and economic policies that would encourage businesses to thrive. Even in the US, and other countries where they practice welfare system, it’s not yielding any meaningful results.

A country must be developed to a certain level before a thing such as social welfare is introduced. By implementing the system, a government is encouraging laziness, social unrest, and emotional distrust within families.

Amidst the dwindling levels of oil price, with lean economy strength that has no concrete diversification, the little money left should be channeled into a programme that could assist the country’s recovery from its financial crises. Placing token in people’s hands every month will turn Nigeria to a nation of lazy beggars. This will greatly damage the country.

A more realistic approach

President Buhari can use the N500 billion to power an initiative like YouWiN, embarked upon by the ex-president Jonathan-led administration, and properly monitor it.

A program like the YouWiN would target poor youths from all over Nigeria. When these people are given opportunities and training with grants from the program, wealth will be created, production will kick off, export will kick off together with the GDP, more people will be employed, because the government cannot employ everyone.

Let us be practical here. If the Buhari administration picked up a son or a daughter of a poor man, trained them in any area of their talent or acquired skills, gave them grants to support their talent, such person would begin to make money and would be able to feed, clothe and shelter his or her parents. They would be able to cater for their parents better than the N5, 000 token government intends to hand over to them or their parents.

The government should not be too ashamed to implement a better program or modify their campaign promises for effectiveness. Should they go ahead and implement the N5,000 tokenism called the social welfare scheme, it would amount to waste and damage to the reputation of Nigeria as a beggar. The implication is that the government will waste about N2 trillion in four years — and people will still remain poor and beggars.

When people wait for crumbs from their government, it means they have become beggars.

Help us emerge from the darkness

The Nigerian government, both at the state and federal levels, should not waste the hard-earned tax payers’ money to embark on a project or a program that would not yield any meaningful results in the end. Even if the government plots to “bribe” the people with the money for past or future electoral gains, Nigerians will still lament and complain: what can the N5,000 do for them? The government should teach people how to fish, and not just distribute fish for people to eat.

Nigeria is blessed with massive human and natural resources. We should put them to use to create wealth and enrich our people. The youths need jobs. Civil unrests, security threats, threat of disintegration and Boko Haram killings should be urgently looked into. Nigerians should be taken out of darkness with provision of electricity, our roads are death traps and should be fixed, we need better foreign reputation, relationship and policies with great economy directions.

Author, Adelaja Adeoye

Adelaja Adeoye is a Lagos-based blogger and a commentator on social and political issues. He tweets via @AdelajaAdeoye.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Naij.com.

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