Aisha Buhari, the wife of the president, has lamented that the various social investment programmes (SIP) planned by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari failed in the north.
Buhari, who was speaking at an interactive forum at Aso Rock on Saturday, said she was told that 30,000 women from Adamawa would benefit from the programme but nothing of such happened.
“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 poor,” she said.
“The SSA to the president on social investment (Maryam Uwais) 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 used or being given out.
“I met one of the president’s aides on SIP once and he promised me that for my state (Adamawa), N10,000 each would be given to 30,000 women but up till now, I haven’t heard from him.
“I don’t want to raise an alarm that my state did not benefit from it. That’s where the secretary to the government of the federation is from. I kept quiet because I didn’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.
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“So, I don’t know where social investment worked. Maybe it worked out in some states. In my own state, only a local government benefited out of the 22 LGAs. I didn’t ask what happened and I don’t want to know but I can say it failed woefully in Kano.
We have a lot of women who do business locally due to the cultural thing in the north, they are at home doing their businesses. Some are millionaires, some have thousands of naira, they need the assistance but they did 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 did not get it.”
On the $16 million counterpart fund expended on mosquito nets, the president’s wife also said “I have heard about mosquito nets, Nigeria paid its counterpart fund, $16m. I asked them to give my own share of the net to send it to my village people, I didn’t get it.”
“They spent, $16 million buying mosquito nets, I did not get it, maybe some people have it. But I feel that $16 million is enough to fumigate mosquitoes all over Nigeria. That’s my opinion.”
“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 has been released,” she added.