The leadership of the National Assembly (NASS) has expressed its dissatisfaction with the manner with which the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes are being managed.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed their reservation on how the programmes are being implemented.

In their observation, the national assembly leader said the modalités and  conditions set by people in charge of the social welfare scheme most times excluded poor Nigerians who should be the primary beneficiary of such scheme.

Lawan and Gbajabiamila made their concerns known on Tuesday when they met with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, and other top officials of the ministry.

Also in the meeting were the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, the Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, and some other principal officers from both chambers.

According to a release, the meeting between the leadership of the National Assembly and the ministry was to review the Federal Government’s palliatives to Nigerians, especially as they concerned the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Senate President said the Social Investment Programme, which was established by the Presidency in 2016, needed to be tinkered with to make it more effective and also serve it primary purpose.

He said, “We feel that we need to work together with you to ensure that there is effectiveness and efficiency so that those who are supposed to benefit, benefit directly. When, for example, some conditions are set, that those who will benefit will have to go online, through the internet or must have Bank Verification Number and the rest of it.

“I want to tell you that the majority of those who are supposed to benefit have no access to power. They have no access to Internet. They have no bank account, so no BVN. In fact, many of them don’t even have phones and these are the poorest of the poor. Yet, some of the conditions or guidelines which you set inadvertently leave them out.”

Lawan noted that the poorest of the poor had not been sufficiently captured by the programme.

“We believe that when we work together; the Executive side of government and the National Assembly as representatives of the people, we will be able to reach many more of these people who are in serious distress even before the coronavirus outbreak.

“Now with coronavirus, they need our attention more than ever before. The time has come that we review the ways and manner we use to deliver the services under the SIP to Nigerians.

“The questions are going to be asked; how do you come about your lists? How comprehensive is your distribution list? What are the parameters? What is the geographical spread? So these are tough questions that are going to be asked but I want you to look at them as frank questions that we need to ask.”

Gbajabiamila added that Nigeria’s SIP was akin to the Unemployment Insurance Act in the United Kingdom and the Social Security Act in the United States.

In her response, the minister said the SIP was moved to her ministry for sustainability and institutionalisation.

“I am very pleased to hear that we are going to work together to see that we give a legal backing to this programme because that is the only way to go,” she noted.