<\/p>\n
By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi<\/p>\n
The decision of the Nigerian Senate to step down the passage of the
\nNational Social Welfare Commission, NSWC Bill again testifies to how our
\ncountry has become so accustomed to caring less about the welfare of its
\nburgeoning mass of underprivileged. We have become so inured to this
\nundoing of government that we can hardly remember when this rain started
\nbuffeting us. Even when we try, the actual time we started accepting the
\nculture of our government\u2019s insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians
\nsuffering privation keeps escaping our memory. Alas, we have right before
\nus another landmark in the narrative of a tradition that leaves the poor
\nto their fate when they should be enjoying a welfare scheme from the
\ngovernment.
\nThe above submission may have been lost on you since what I\u2019m referring to
\nis one news item that appears to have been intended not to stay in the
\nnews. Bad news is that this article is poised to exhuming it from oblivion
\nand putting it where it rightly belongs. The Nigerian Senate last Tuesday
\nelected to step down the National Social Welfare Commission Bill. The
\nproposed law is one which seeks to provide allowances for the unemployed,
\naged and disabled.
\nAs noble and welfarist as the Bill is, it narrowly escaped being thrown
\nout by the lawmakers during its clause by clause consideration. Their
\nreason for wanting to kill it is that they, among other things, fear how
\nthe scheme would be funded. At the end of the day, the senators managed to
\nstep down the bill allowing the sponsors time to fine-tune the details of
\nits funding with its committee on finance.
\nWhile the respected legislators should be commended for not throwing out
\nthe highly needed bill, their stepping it down raises suspicions when one
\nconsiders the given that the Bill has been with them since 2012 when it
\nsuffered the same treatment. We shall return to this presently but before
\nthen, let’s talk about the seeming conspiracy of silence that shrouded the
\nnear throw-away of the Bill by the Senate.
\nA similar step down of the news about Senate\u2019s ill-treatment of the Bill
\nby those who should make all the noise about it, smacks of conspiracy or
\nwillful inertia – one that is possibly aimed at deepening our continued
\noblivion of how our leaders reflexively underplay issues that better the
\nlot of the poor. How else can one explain that in the same day where the
\nmajor business of the day was the consideration of the proposed NSWC Bill,
\nwhat got the banner headlines was the Senate\u2019s approval of the appointment
\nof Dr Chinelo Anohu-Amazu as director-general of the National Pension
\nCommission, reducing the Senate\u2019s treatment of the bill to a mere mention
\nor outright omission from the report in other instances.
\nJust as I wouldn\u2019t want to believe that our newsmen have lost grasp of
\nnews judgment, I would also not want to believe that an offer of \u2018fuel
\nmoney\u2019 warranted their queuing behind the Senate to also step down in the
\nmedia the ordeal of a Bill which, when passed, would greatly assist their
\nparents, siblings and other relatives. Somebody had better drawn their
\nattention to the fact that while what accrues to an average Nigerian
\nsenator can arguably take care of his entire village, same cannot be said
\nof the Nigerian journalist, no matter how resourceful.
\nPlease let no one tell me that my grouse with the media, of which I am
\nproudly a part, is misguided or misplaced since the lawmakers only stepped
\ndown the Bill to allow them better consider it at a later date. That would
\nmake a good story for the marines! In actual fact, their clever use of
\nthat jargon reminds one of the ‘tactical maneuvering’ that the military
\ngraciously bequeathed to our parlance not too long ago. As far as I know,
\ntheir choice of stepping down the Bill is a sheer tactful stunt. Remove
\nthe all-important 2015 from the mix and what we would have heard is a
\ndirect throw-out of the Bill.
\nI had expected the Senate\u2019s resolve to step down the Bill as one that
\nwould have stirred and encouraged the Nigerian media into giving that item
\nof news all the attention and attraction it could get. Since their
\nstepping it down yields hope that it can be re-presented, the requisite
\npuff should have been exerted on the lawmakers to lobby them into passing
\nit and speedily too. But the media relapsed, allowing themselves to be
\ntaken in by a shrewd choice of words by the Senate.
\nMeanwhile, since the media could not adequately bring this stepping down
\nto the notice of Nigerians, one would have expected members of the civil
\nsocieties to swoop in as soon as they got whiff of it. But they didn’t,
\nleading to skepticism if the civil liberty organizations we have in this
\ncountry actually understand what they professed to be. Should this had
\nhappened in other climes, you can be sure that CLOs would have mobilized
\nthe masses into making sure that the House of Senate does the needful. But
\nin Nigeria, complacency has come to be an infectious lifestyle.
\nLet it be known that the civil societies and sundry human rights
\norganizations we have in this country failed us in this. Come to think of
\nit, since it is generally accepted and even recognized in our ground norm
\nthat the welfare of its people is the whole essence of government, any
\nnon-governmental organization that claims to be all about the rights of
\nthe people ought to have made an issue out of Senate\u2019s stepping down of a
\nBill which seeks to promote the welfare of the people. Frankly speaking,
\nour civil societies or whatever name they appropriate to themselves had
\nbetter woken up from their slumber or closed shop.
\nEnter the institution that should get the most blame, talking about
\nNigeria\u2019s House of Senate. This body of government is one that has played
\na great role in the stabilization of our democracy and by extension the
\npolity. As such, it is not out of place for us to accord them the respect
\nthey rightfully deserve. It should also enjoy our respect and regard
\nbecause it is one legislative house that is filled with old men and sages.
\nRemember we are Africans and Africans respect the aged. However, when
\nsomeone you so much respect relegates your welfare to the background, it
\nraises questions about how deserving such a person is of your regard.
\nThey have used the wisdom they garnered over the years to deny us that
\nwhich our people should rightly enjoy from government with reasons that
\nare at best laughable and ridiculous. How can they get so close to
\nthrowing out the NSWC Bill just because they have reservations about where
\nits funding would be sourced from? Like I heard someone ask, do they also
\nhave fears about funding when it comes to allocating to themselves those
\nmouth-watering allowances they enjoy as well as funds for constituency
\nprojects? We had better told these people who feed fat on our expense that
\nwe are no fools.
\nGranted that fears of where to get the funding for the proposed scheme
\nwasn\u2019t their only reason for stepping down the Bill. They had other fears
\nprominent among which is the non-availability of a census of those who are
\nqualified to benefit. This fear throws up the need for a reliable data of
\nthose in dire need of assistance and how much it would cost government to
\ncater for their welfare.
\nThe fear of the lawmakers regarding census of those qualified to benefit
\nis with all due respect unfounded. This is because the Bill is proposing
\nto set up a commission not as if it seeks to just gather those in the
\ncategory and give them hand-outs. As a commission it would, of course,
\nhave a secretariat with staffers who would be tasked with gathering the
\ndata of those in need of help and also collaborating with the National
\nPopulations Commission to get the figures right.
\nEven if government thinks it can’t pay such workers who would get the
\ncensus, the disabled, aged and unemployed would gladly come to designated
\noffices of the proposed commission to register their particulars with
\nconfirmation notes from respected clerics, if need be. With this as the
\ncase, I see no reason why the senators would have fears about getting the
\nrealistic data of those to benefit from the proposed welfare scheme.
\nIn fact, I see no reason why they should step down the Bill in itself. Are
\nthey not aware of countries where the poor and unemployed are entitled to
\nsquare meals on a daily? Are they not aware of countries where government
\nestablish, run and maintain old people’s homes? Are they telling us that
\nour country is not buoyant enough to handle this? Are they really
\nsuggesting that disadvantaged Nigerians are lesser humans that are not
\nqualified to enjoy this privilege? Right is the one who cried, “there’s
\nGod o!”
\nOne thing the senators need to know is that we are blessed with lots of
\ncharitable Nigerians looking for reputable organizations through which to
\nrender help to the less privileged. Since they are having fears about how
\nthe scheme would be funded, they should know that there are people who
\nwould waste no time in donating to such a commission should it be in
\nplace. Thus, the continued stepping down of the National Social Welfare
\nCommission Bill is tantamount to denying these people an avenue to better
\nsupport the course of the needy.
\nWell, let’s believe, like they said, that they only delayed passage of the
\nBill for the sponsor to better harmonize with the committee on finance. It
\nis hoped that every stakeholder would by now have realized why they should
\nwork to have the Bill passed before the 2015 general elections. The Bill
\nwill so much benefit needy Nigerians that instituting
\n#no-nswc-bill-no-vote wouldn’t be a bad idea, I’m just saying!
\nYou can get interactive with me on the topic through my twitter handle
\n@ugsylvester<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi The decision of the Nigerian Senate to step down the passage of the National Social Welfare Commission, NSWC Bill again testifies to how our country has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n