Rejects N5,000 payment for unemployed youths. Less than 24 hours after former President Goodluck Jonathan visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, the Nigerian Senate has called on President Buhari to ensure that his predecessor accounts for SURE-P funds.
The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) was established during the administration of Jonathan, to re-invest the Federal Government savings from fuel subsidy removal on critical infrastructure projects and social safety net programmes with direct impact on Nigerians.
It was established on January 2012, when the immediate past government announced the removal of subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (petrol).
At Wednesday’s plenary, the Senate also urged the Federal Government to ensure that funds the past government spent on all other poverty alleviation programmes were accounted for.
The resolution was reached during a motion by Bassey Akpan (PDP, Akwa-Ibom North East).
The motion titled, ‘Urgent need to curb the soaring rate of unemployment in Nigeria,’ expressed concern that the nation’s quest to be among the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 was a mirage if urgent attention was not focused on employment generation and poverty reduction.
However, a rowdy session ensued when the Senate rejected a prayer calling for payment of N5,000 to unemployed youths.
The prayer proposed by Philip Aduda (PDP, FCT), received stern rejection by the APC senators who continued to interject with ‘No’ when the Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio moved to second the prayer.
In a data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), unemployment rate in the country increased to 8.2 percent in the second quarter of 2015 from 7.5 percent in the first quarter of 2015, and 6.4 percent in the last quarter of 2014.
The Bureau puts the economically active population in Nigeria within the age range of 15 to 64, at 103.5 million increasing from 102.8 million in the last quarter of 2015, while the unemployed labour force stood at 74 million Nigerian youths.
The Senate expressed concern that in the last five years, about N2 trillion had been expended on intervention funds by the Federal Government to boost the productivity of various sectors of the economy without any commensurate impact on employment generation.
It therefore called on the Federal Government and sub-national governments to intensify efforts on employment generation activities.
The Senate also urged the Federal Government to take steps to boost entrepreneurial developments and employment capabilities as well as integrate entrepreneurial, savings and investment culture and education into the educational curriculum at appropriate levels.
In his remark, Senate president, Bukola Saraki, charged the lawmakers not to play party politics with unemployment issues.
He said: “We should stay above party line on this issue that is so important. We have seen growth in the last years but this has not translated to employment.
“Government alone cannot do it, the private sector has a role and the enabling environment must be created.”
BusinessDay reports that payment of unemployed youths was also contained in the Social Security Bill passed by the seventh Senate.
