From Akanimo Kufre (The New Diplomat’s A|Ibom and C|River States Correspondent)
Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade has embarked on a plan to use job creation as an avenue of providing stimulus package to vulnerable persons across the 18 local government areas of the State. Those classified as vulnerables are persons who cannot fend for themselves due to old age or in-capacitation.
Speaking during the distribution of the stimulus package in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, Gov. Ayade declared that he has “approved N30,000 as monthly stipend for beneficiaries of the automatic employement given to 8,000 youths between the ages of 18 to 35 in the state starting from Tuesday next week”.
Many believe that Ayade’s style of fighting COVID 19 pandemic has been highly effective considering the fact that some other States have adopted his model. Prof. Ayade who also observed that handing over Rice and Noodles to citizens by government is not palliative was very critical of that practice.
He said: “Distributing food is not the real palliatives, the real palliative is in giving people jobs. Palliative which is temporal is for poor and vulnerable who cannot fend for themselves.
“We are starting the real palliative on Tuesday. Whether you are a gardner or cleaner, whatever you can do, we will give a job but we can only pay you N30,000 if you know you need it and want to earn that amount please put down your names and phone numbers, you will be contacted. This is a time to show humanity. Humanity does not know colour or ethnicity. We need to stop spreading fear about the pandemic. What we need is to show the people love especially at this critical time. Fear and hunger is killing people even more than the pandemic.”
The governor noted that his plan is to fight the pandemic while working on economic plans for the State.
According to reports, going by the World Bank standard, “stimulus package for recovery must include new investment and human capacity development.” Recall that a recent World Bank report on COVID -19 and how it would impact on economy was quite categorical and very revealing.
The report reads: “In parallel, preliminary work has started in some countries (China, Germany and South Korea) on what the next phase of recovery will look like and the role of strong public action in boosting demand, providing replacement income, and facilitating new investments.
“There are many factors that governments must weigh in on putting together their stimulus package: immediate needs, local institutional capacity, market conditions, borrowing headroom, and the legacy of past infrastructure investment decisions. Other criteria to assess for stimulus interventions or investments include their potential for job creation, the lead time involved in breaking ground on the project, whether government funds might help mobilize private finance to further support a project, and the impact on the country’s long-term carbon trajectory.”
Recall also that Governor Ayade while appreciating the Federal government for its support to the State thanked President Buhari for granting the State clearance on Rice Seedlings.
He Said: “We want to thank President Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria for granting us clearance to deliver our rice seedlings to states.
“We have built industries and made serious investment. Federal government support is key. We need more of their support so that we can achieve more growth and development in our economy and even more.”
