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The modality used by the federal government in disbursing the national conditional cash transfers to beneficiaries has come under heavy criticisms, leading to what many termed as a ‘North-South dichotomy’ in the distribution of palliatives meant for millions of indigent Nigerian households struggling to survive the debilitating effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
An unsettling report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) with figures allegedly obtained from the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO) revealed much unevenness, and imbalance in the cash transfers scheme and its distribution along national fault lines.
While the beneficiaries from the north, excluding Borno had reportedly gulped much of the transfers, states in the South reportedly had little to show. Lagos–Nigeria’s epicentre of the pandemic, Ogun and Delta were also reported to have had no beneficiary as at April 9 when the infographics were released.
Of the 1,126,211 households reported to have benefited from the transfers, 561,738 had come from Northwest; Northeast had 109,448 even though Borno was yet to be captured; Northcentral–321,434; Southwest–37,904; Southsouth–67,696 and Southeast–27,977 households.
More worrisome to many observers is that President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state of Katsina reportedly had 133,227 beneficiaries (highest) which is just about the number of households–133,577 that had purportedly benefitted from the scheme across the entire southern states –17 in all.
It would be recalled that President Buhari had in his March 30 nationwide broadcast, directed the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to embark on the payment of N20,000 conditional cash transfer to poor households and the most vulnerable in the country to help them cope with the effects of disruptions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The list of eligible beneficiaries was said to be 2.6 million. The President, however, in his broadcast on Monday, 13th April, directed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to expand the list to 3.6 million households.
Though the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Mrs. Sadiya Farouk has said Nigerians with more than N5,000 bank balance and those who spend more than N100 on recharge cards would be excluded from palliatives, the cash transfers, despite the modalities as announced by her haven’t reflected a national spread, raising concerns in many quarters.
“Well, we have three options. One, we are going to use the national social register that we already have. Two, we are also going to focus on the urban poor as I mentioned by using their verified BVN accounts to get them, that is, people that have an account balance of N5, 000 and below.
“We are also using the mobile networks, to know people that top up the credit units for their phones with maybe N100 or less. These are people that we consider to be poor and vulnerable,” Farouk told journalists in Abuja.
Though, the solution to the COVID-19-contagion and its ensuing economic crisis has sort off re-awakened a sense of national unity in countries around the world, stakeholders lament that the same cannot be said of the manner at which the Nigerian government has so far handled the critical palliatives meant for millions of poor people and highly vulnerable households.
In a telephone chat with The New Diplomat, Spokesperson of the Pan-Yoruba Socio-cultural group–Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin said the lopsidedness in the distribution of the COVID-19 palliatives has exposed Buhari’s government as the one that panders towards “sectionalism and parochial attitudes,” saying he doesn’t come to him as a surprise.
He said: “It’s their usual pattern — narrowness, sectionalism, and parochial attitudes. In a situation where you have locked down Lagos and Ogun, yet you’re concentrating the palliatives in the North. Katsina even had more beneficiaries than all the states in the south. The sectionalism is much in this administration. It’s really unfortunate that for every N100 distributed in this country, N70 to 80 would have come from the south.”
According to Odumakin, those using this data to distribute these palliatives are “embracing the amalgamation policy of Lord Luggard in 1914” which believed in using the surplus from the Southern states to offset shortages in the North.
“The Buhari government is using the surplus of the South to write off the shortages of the North,” he said.
Some political analysts have argued that President Buhari is a consistent rewarder of loyalty, especially by his voting bloc who massively supported in him at the polls in 2015 and 2019 respectively. Some also argued that the massive votes from the North-West which surpassed votes from South West, South-South and the South-East may be the metrics used in distributing these funds. Recall that Buhari won Kano State in the NorthWest with 1,903, 999 votes in 2015. And in 2019, Buhari defeated Atiku Abubakar in Katsina State, winning 1,232,133 votes to Atiku’s 308,056 votes.
Alhaji Mohammed Ismaila, Chairman of the Peoples Solidarity in Kano told The New Diplomat on phone:”We voted more for Buhari. In fact, the massive votes we gave the President helped him win in 2015 and 2019. So I don’t see why people should complain.” He added: “Those talking are talking rubbish. When you have large numbers, it is expected that the per cent would be more. So why the noise that NorthWest is getting more from the palliatives? Didn’t they give more votes?”
Perhaps, that’s a factor being considered in disbursing those conditional cash transfers, but Odumakin lashed out at such arguments, saying “anyone thinking like that, such people should be quarantined.” He added: “The more votes he got in the North, is it resources that he’s spending? That’s nonsensical! Is the President getting money from Katsina and how much is Katsina contributing to the federal government’s account?” He asked. “The only reason why this is going on is nepotism and sectionalism.”
Odumakin added: “The states they have locked down like Lagos, Ogun should have more priorities.
“You have locked down a state for 14 days and added another 14 days and that’s 28 days of their lives. Many of these people when they’re even working they cannot make ends meet and now you have locked them down without providing the needed palliatives.”
But again, Ismaila counters: “Have we forgotten how much the President released to Lagos State immediately the Covid-19 crisis started? He ordered N10bn to be given to Lagos State. You people are not mentioning that…”
As the uproar on the COVID-19 palliatives continues to gather steam, The New Diplomat recalls that the FG had ordered the release of N10bn to Lagos as the state quickly emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. However, it’s not clear whether such disbursement was factored in while considering states that should benefit from the cash transfers, even though that was not stated by the federal government. Another school of thought argued that the cash payment should be done using the FAAC data in sharing national revenue. Said a financial analyst: “Why can’t the Minister use the FAAC metrics for sharing national revenue? What she is using is giving room for suspicions and serious uproar.”
Also, analysts have been critical of what some states like the oil-rich Delta have done with their fat monthly disbursements to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the citizens. The New Diplomat had reported that Delta had the highest total net allocation or receipt of N213.63 billion in the month of March, having accounted for 8.32 per cent of the total net revenue of the 36 states and FCT. Again, some had suggested that citizens should begin to ask their various State governors to hold monthly town hall meetings and engagement via video conferencing with citizens to explain what they are doing with FAAC allocations. Another analyst rationalized it thus; “Those funds belong to the citizens. Government is merely managing the funds on their behalf, and so it behoves on government to always engage the citizens on how such funds are being expended judiciously and transparently.”
In meantime, a lot of Nigerians believed some states are buoyant to deal with the crisis and would like to know what states had done with their FAAC disbursements over the years in the light of the ravaging COVID-19, even though that wouldn’t justify the alleged lopsidedness in the distribution of FG’s palliatives.
Reacting, Chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Mr. Debo Adeniran told The New Diplomat that it is unfortunate the palliatives cannot be isolated from the decades-old traditional lopsidedness in the distribution of resources in the country.
“Though we cannot move around to carry out a survey due to the lockdown, but we know that the distribution of economic benefits in Nigeria has always been lopsided against one section or the other, the reason why many people are agitating for the restructuring of Nigeria. The palliatives cannot be isolated from the traditional lopsidedness in the distribution of resources whereby people have accused others of class distinctions.”
Adeniran averred that the distribution of palliatives to poorest of the poor should not be difficult for the government to do having mastered the modalities of collecting taxes and electricity tariffs among other social services it renders to citizens. “They even know how to get election materials to every knook and cranny of this country.
“The BVN makes it easier for the government to know the poorest of the poor and maybe if the account balance is less than 4000 and 5000, then you know these are those who should be credited. It shouldn’t be difficult and where they don’t have a bank account, accounts should be created for them just like what the Rivers state government has done.”
The CACOL Chairman worries that should the government fail to curb alleged reports of endemic corruption and alleged sectionalism in the distribution of palliatives, authorities would soon be dealing with a massive twin-problem of curtailing the COVID-19 spread and social unrest, something that is already playing out in Lagos and Ogun states now under lockdown following the President’s restriction order and the recent extension. Adeniran warns it would make the curtailment of the virus difficult for a country still grappling with the rising toll.
He added: “If any committee or taskforce is constituted it should not be in the exclusion of the anti corruption agency like the EFCC, ICPC. They should be at every distribution point to raise the red flag. The distribution should not be done by Minister of Humanitarian Affairs directly rather, it should be handed over to a committee that would be composed of the ICPC, EFCC, professional bodies like NBA, ICAN, NUJ, and Civil Societies that have interest in anti-corruption to oversight the distribution of the money.”
