Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari on Saturday queried government expenditure of N12b released for treatment of trauma cases in the country and called for proper monitoring of health fundings in the country.
This is just as the First Lady queried the usage of $16m about N5.75b on the importation of insecticide treated mosquito nets by the federal government.
Aisha Buhari raised the issues while speaking at a Special interactive program organized to sensitize women as part of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2nd term inauguration program, lamenting that the $16m fund paid as Nigeria’s counterpart funding was enough to “ fumigate the country” even as she noted that the nets are not even available for distribution to Nigerians.
According to her, “Over N12 billion has been released by the President to take care of trauma cases across the country. Can you please monitor the money? The ministers are going very soon and the money are being released,”
She disclosed that Nigeria paid a whopping sum of $16m as counterpart funding for Mosquito nets.
“l asked them to give my own share of the net to send to my village people. I didn’t get it. But I feel, in my personal opinion, that $16 million is enough to fumigate mosquitoes in Nigeria.
Also speaking on the Federal government Social Investments Program, Mrs Buhari berated the method applied in the implementation of the project, stating that the project which was designed for the poorest of the poor did not achieve the desired results in the north.
This is coming on the heels of recent claims by the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Maryam Uwais that over N470.8 billion was released from 2016 to 2018 for the delivery of its social investment programmes across the country.
The program according to government is spread across four-broad area, including N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, National Home-Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes (GEEP)
From 2016 till date, the Federal Government budgets an annual sum of 500 billion naira for social investment, however, in 2016 only N79.98 billion was released.
The sum of 140 billion naira was released in 2017 and N250.4 billion in 2018.
Federal government had declared that $22m out of the $322 million recovered from the Abacha loot has also been utilized for the social investment programs.
But Mrs. Buhari, however stated that she was given assurances that no fewer than 30,000 women will benefit from the programme in Adamawa, adding however, that as the administration winds down, she was yet to get concrete proof that this number actually benefited in Adamawa state.
“Concerning the N500 billion voted for SIP, that was part of 2015 campaigns where they promised to give out N10,000, feed pupils in primary schools and give N5,000 to the poorest of the poorer.
“The SSA to the president on social investment is a lady from Kano and I’m sure that my husband decided to put somebody from Kano because of the population and political impact it made.
“I have never asked how the money is being used or is being given out. I met Barrister (one of the President aides on SIP) once and he promised me that for my state (Adamawa) we should get 30,000 women to be given N10,000. Up till now I haven’t heard from him.
“ I don’t want to raise alarm that my state do not benefit from it, where SGF came from, I kept quiet because I don’t want people to say that I talk too much. “Recently I saw a 74-year-old man selling petty things in Kano, I asked him how much is his capital, he told me between N3,000 and N4,000. Don’t forget that we have campaigned to give the poorest of the poor, N5,000 every month ..
“So I don’t know where the social investment… Maybe, It worked out in some states. In my own state, only a local government benefited out of the 22. I didn’t ask what happened and I don’t want to know but for it fail woefully in Kano, it’s not a good sign and it’s not a good thing. “We have a lot of women that do business locally due to the cultural thing in the north, that are at home doing their businesses. Some are millionaires, some have thousands of naira, they need the assistance but they do not get it. Most northern women do not belong to any market association
I was expecting that N500 billion to be utilized in different methods in the north for the aim to be achieved. I don’t know the method they used but most of the northern states do not get it. My state do not get it,” she said. “How many of you get it in your state? My state did not benefit from it.”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
