Don’t politicize NSIP scheme, beneficiaries warn Saraki, others

Beneficiaries of the Nigerian Social Investment Programme (NSIP) on Monday cautioned Senate President Bukola Saraki and other politicians in the country against politicization of the programme.

The beneficiaries said that NSIP has been a life saver for many of them.

Senator Saraki had reportedly described scheme as an attempt by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to curry voters to his side in 2019.

Addressing reporters Monday in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, spokesperson of the beneficiaries Danwahab Ambali said no fewer than 5000 people had benefitted from the first phase of N-Power in the state.

Said he: “With me here are beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer and Tradermoni, all part of the NSIP.  It is important to state here that NSIP scheme to us has been nothing but a life saver.

I graduated from the University of Ilorin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Anatomy in 2009. For six years, I was without any gainful employment until 2016 when I became an Npower volunteer.

“My participation in the program has really impacted my life, because it was through N-power that I got the money to do my M.sc program and also enhance my personal skills in other areas.

“Like me, N-power and other SIP programs have improved the lives of many that I know in Kwara here.

“Here with me is Mrs Memunat Ismaila who was widowed since 1996 with no help from anywhere. To feed her children, she became a petty trader, selling pepper. She kept struggling for her small business to survive, until respite came when she got the first tranche of Conditional Cash Transfer which she put into her business. She now lives a more dignified life with her children.

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“Ibrahim Moshood here is a fashion designer who was in need of shop. It was the tradermoni he got that he used to get a shop and standardized his business. So the Social Investment Programs is working for us.

“It is therefore to defend the integrity of the NSIP program so that others can benefit that we have found it necessary to come out openly to say that we do not believe that the Nigerian social investment program is tailored towards any political gain. We say this because we heard Dr Saraki say that the NSIP is nothing but a ‘systematic vote buying for the 2019 election.’

“This cannot be true, since many of us do not start benefiting from this program because the 2019 elections is approaching.

Like I said before, I became a beneficiary in 2016; while some of my colleagues got in in 2017. In fact, Senator Saraki himself had praised the program in the past, and some of his aides indeed tried unsuccessfully to nominate people into the programme claiming they were APC before they defected.

“The system has been foolproof and neutral. For the first time, we Kwarans are getting things from the Federal Government not through the Saraki ladder. Common people are directly being impacted by FG. It has never happened in my adult life. So, Saraki should be happy for us and not try to spoil this.

“Based on verifiable record of beneficiaries in this state and judging by the time we got into the program; we do not agree with Senator Saraki that the social investment program is tailored towards vote buying in the 2019 election.

“We therefore appeal to Senator Saraki and other privileged individuals who may want to play politics with a program that has put food on the table of many of us to please take pity on our poor.”

Mr. Ambali urged the Federal Government to convert the appointment of the beneficiaries to a permanent one.