By Akanimo Kufre (The New Diplomat’s A/Ibom|C/River Correspondent)
A non-governmental organisation working to promote social, environmental and economic justice in Nigeria, Policy Alert has called on Akwa Ibom State Government to publish criteria for beneficiaries of Covid-19 palliatives.
The organization made this request following the scandal that rocked the April palliative process and prevention of reoccurrence in the proposed second round of palliatives distribution recently announced by the state government.
In a statement signed by the organisation’s Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Officer, Utibe Archibong, “Policy Alert commends the Akwa Ibom State Government for the distribution of palliatives to poor citizens of the state during the month of April 2020 and the recent announcement of approval for the second-round of State Government funded palliatives.”
“However, we observe that “over 50,000 bags of palliative items comprising garri, rice, flour and beans to about 3,000 villages across the state” which the state government purportedly distributed during the first round of palliatives distribution were not verified by independent stakeholders.
“Also, the procurement of the said palliatives was not informed by any clear assessment of the real needs of target beneficiaries, neither was the public informed of the criteria for the selection of beneficiaries and the format of the distribution, which resulted in the process being administered in an ad hoc and highly partisan manner.”
According to the NGO, its community monitors who tracked the distribution across the 31 Local Government Areas reported that very meagre and grossly inadequate portions reached a small percentage of the poor and vulnerable people who really need it.
Policy Alert also observed that majority of the poorest citizens across the state did not receive any palliatives.
Widespread irregularities have trailed the distribution of distress relief materials where in most community, leaders complained about the insignificant impact of the palliative comparable to the needs of their communities.
Similarly, radio programs were flooded with calls claiming that the list of most beneficiaries had only members of the ruling PDP with most wealthy ‘Honorables’ taking share of the palliatives.
“There were also official reports that some ‘miscreants’ diverted some of the palliatives meant for the vulnerable in the State, but up till date, there is no indication that the government is making any efforts to apprehend and prosecute any culprits.”
Policy Alert, however, proposed that the second round of palliatives distribution by the State Government needs to ramp up the quantity of palliatives to be distributed and proactively publish the criteria for selecting beneficiaries as well as inclusion of community leaders, civil society groups and the media in the Palliatives Committee as third-party monitors rather than depend on political middlemen as experienced during the first-round distribution which recorded more complain than commendations.
