The Chairman, Senate Committee on Poverty Alleviation, Ali Wakili, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Bill for the Establishment of Poverty Alleviation Commission to tackle poverty.
The lawmaker made the call when he featured on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
He said that the creation of the commission would go a long way in blocking leakages that had turned poverty alleviation programmes in the country into “conduit pipes” for syphoning money.
He added that Buhari’s assent to the bill, which had been passed by the National Assembly, was necessary to proffer lasting solution to issues of poverty in the country.
“The solution to corruption is to ensure that we have a standing body that is authorised by law to oversee such programmes to check corruption and ensure continuity.
“If there is a pillar for you to depend on, all you need to do is to improve upon what you met and where you discover certain anomalies, you make corrections.
“We are a great country with great repository of both human and material resources.
“So, if we fight the issue of corruption and selfishness by ensuring that there are good schools, the issue of poverty will be in the background,’’ he said.
Wakili pointed out that in spite of efforts by previous governments to tackle poverty, not so much was achieved because of lack of coordination.
“Since Nigeria’s independence, there have been various poverty alleviation programmes, from Green Revolution of Shagari to Operation Feed the Nation of Obasanjo days.
“Others are President Buhari’s War Against Indiscipline when he was a military Head of State, Obasanjo’s NAPEP and Yar’adua and Jonathan’s SURE-P and others.
“These programmes were not successful because there was no standing ministry to oversee their activities.
“While we are trying to build on all of these programmes, we will not continue to wail, we must do something more permanent,’’ he said.
The lawmaker commended efforts of the present administration in tackling poverty but urged that a more permanent solution be provided.
“You recall during the campaign, because of the state of unemployment, youth restiveness and degree of poverty, the president promised to put in place certain welfare facilities that will mitigate the state of those things.
“Part of it is the N500 billion-Social Intervention Fund that is meant to assist poorest Nigerians.
“However, we need a body to coordinate all these,’’ Wakili said.
He expressed concern that poverty was not the state of being poor but a state of deprivation, of want either in terms of education, environment or housing among others.
He assured of the committee’s commitment to ensuring that poor Nigerians were adequately catered for.
The chairman also stated that the committee would ensure that policies of government as enunciated by the president were in line with prevailing socio-economic realties.
“If you look at the Constitution of Nigeria, especially Chapter 2, dealing with direct principles of state policy, it says that the purpose of government is for the welfare and economic wellbeing of the populace,’’ he said.
