First Lady, Aisha Buhari has aimed and landed her trademark missile on questionable Federal Government policies, this time on its Social Investment Policy, SIP, in the Northern part of the country and the $16m counterpart funding for mosquito nets for the poor.
She said emphatically that the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme (SIP), had failed in the Northern part of Nigeria.
She spoke at a meeting with Nigerian women at the State House, Abuja, on Saturday, stating there was yet to be any sign of money spent on the project and its impact on the people. The SIP programme is under the supervision of Maryam Uwais, a Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on social investment and wife to former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Uwais.
According to Aisha; “The N500bn voted for SIP, that was part of 2015 campaigns where they promised to give out N10,000, feed pupils in primary schools and give N5,000 to the poorest of the poorer.
“The SSA to the president on social investment is a lady from Kano (Uwais) and I’m sure that my husband decided to put somebody from Kano because of the population and political impact it made.
“I have never asked how the money is being used or is being given out. I met Barrister (one of the President aides on SIP) once and he promised me that for my state (Adamawa) we should get 30,000 women to be given N10,000. Up till now I haven’t heard from him.
“I don’t want to raise alarm that my state do not benefit from it, where SGF came from, I kept quiet because I don’t want people to say that I talk too much.
“Recently I saw a 74-year-old man selling petty things in Kano, I asked him how much is his capital, he told me between N3,000 and N4,000. Don’t forget that we have campaigned to give the poorest of the poor, N5,000 every month.
“ So I don’t know where the social investment is going. Maybe, It worked out in some states. In my own state, only a local government benefited out of the 22. I didn’t ask what happened and I don’t want to know but for it fail woefully in Kano, it’s not a good sign and it’s not a good thing.
“We have a lot of women that do business locally due to the cultural thing in the north, that are at home doing their businesses. Some are millionaires, some have thousands of naira, they need the assistance but they do not get it. Most northern women do not belong to any market association.
“ I was expecting that N500bn to be utilized in different methods in the north for the aim to be achieved. I don’t know the method they used but most of the northern states do not get it. My state did not get it.”
When she asked the women at the gathering if they got any of the intervention fund, they all shouted in the negative.
Aisha Buhari in a hospital where mosquito nets were said to have been released to patients
On the $16m investment on mosquito net she said: “ I have heard about mosquito nets, Nigeria paid its counterpart fund, $16m. I asked them to give my own share of the net to send it to my village people. I didn’t get it.
“They have spent $16m on buying mosquito nets, I did not get it, maybe some people have gotten it. But I feel that, that’s my personal opinion, $16m is enough to fumigate mosquitoes in Nigeria. That’s my opinion,”
“ Over N12bn has been released by the president to take care of trauma cases in across the country. Can you please monitor the money? The ministers are going very soon and the money are being released,” she said.
