USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari’s N5000 payment and socioeconomic rights

Buhari's N5000 payment and socioeconomic rights

KAYODE KETEFE

It is with utmost pleasure that this writer received the news that President Muhammadu Buhari has started the payment of N5, 000 monthly stipends to the poorest and the most vulnerable in the country through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its Social Investment Programmes, SIP.
We read that many of the beneficiaries have already received their first payments by December 30, 2016.
This obviously is a culmination of an electoral promise by the President during his election campaign which of course was taken with the usual indifference as "political statements" by many skeptical Nigerians. The President had promised that one million Nigerians would receive N5000 monthly payments as a form of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.
So the widely publicized report of the payment to the first batch of the beneficiaries under the scheme was a soothing balm in a new year which majority of Nigerians started with pessimism induced by the escalating effect of the recession.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, , had declared that the nine states that would be covered in the first batch are Borno, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti States.
These states, according to the report, were chosen first because they have an existing Social Register that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested community based targeting (CBT) method which was devised in collaboration with the World Bank. Other states would be followed in due course – the programme having been designed for a nationwide coverage.
In a nutshell, while the amount involved may appear infinitesimally small, the initiative nonetheless represents a since commitment to alleviation of poverty and it should be lauded as such.
The framers of Nigerian Constitution deliberately entrenched appreciable volumes of provisions in the document to promote and protect the socioeconomic rights of Nigerians.
According to the Constitution, every Nigerian should have access to good and qualitative education, adequate means of livelihood, infinite opportunities for suitable employment, conditions of work should be just and humane, and facilities for leisure, social, religious and cultural life are to be provided.
Furthermore, the Constitution says governments should provide adequate medical and health facilities for all persons; there should be equal pay for equal work for all regardless of sex, or any other grounds whatsoever; children, young persons and the aged should be protected against any form of exploitation and neglect.
Not many Nigerians also know that the conditions described above, utopian as they may seem, are expressly provided for under Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution. Actually, I have quoted from chapters 17 and 18, which are just a part of the section tagged 'Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy'.
If the President and governors swore to uphold our Constitution, why do successive governments deprive Nigerians of all these blessings? The answer to the above question lies in Section 6 subsection 6 (c) of the same Constitution.
It renders Chapter Two non-justiciable; that is to say no Nigerian has the right to go to court to enforce them. Some stakeholders have been calling for the expulsion of section 6 (6) (c) from the constitution over the years to ensure that the chapter shall become enforceable just like other parts of the constitution.
The proponents of "enforceability theory" would scoff at the idea that the conditions painted in the constitution cannot be created. They would readily point to billions of naira that had been siphoned from the national treasury by corrupt politicians as money that could have been deployed towards the ends of Chapter Two of the Constitution.
Successive government over the years have therefore, unfortunately hidden under this non-justiciability clause to ignore, almost completely, observances of these social economic rights. So the latest effort to handout some relief even with an amount so meager is a step taken in good direction.
This is the first time such an initiative will be done at such a comprehensive level within a national agenda purview. It is a departure from the erstwhile non-committal and indifferent attitude rooted in the mantra that "Government alone cannot do everything"
The pertinent question has always been "Is the government doing enough at all?" The fact is that a little effort done here and there will not only had its direct impact but also has the potential to lay the foundation of the enduring culture of inclusive empowerment and development.
The marginalized will have a sense of belonging with this kind of gesture, especially if it consolidated upon and entrenched as poverty alleviation strategy.
This Federal government's initiative is therefore a welcome development as it does not only constitute a responsible fulfillment of electoral promise, it also manifests, at least a modicum, of commitment to recognising and respecting the socioeconomic rights of the underprivileged Nigerians.

Ketefe may be followed on twitter @Ketesco

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