Reps query presidential aide over N-Power selections

The House of Representatives Committee on Poverty Alleviation yesterday queried the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Hajiya Maryam Uwais, for not carrying relevant stakeholders along in the N-Power Programme.

The panel said Uwais and her management team failed to consult members of the National Assembly before selection of beneficiaries for the programme.

Speaking during budget defence with the N-Power team yesterday in Abuja, chairman of the committee, Muhammad Ali Wudil (APC, Kano) said members of the National Assembly represent the entire country. He added that engaging them would have made the selection process easier and all encompassing.

He said available records showed that the selection process may have been skewed to favour some sections of the 36 states of the federation, calling for more involvement of major stakeholders in implementation of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP).

“I cannot be here representing my people and something is going on in my local government, and then I will appropriate money, but I don’t know what it’s meant for,” he said.

Mrs Uwais said they trained civil servants and local government facilitators “They gave us people from the ministry of planning and from local government that have been identified as the poorest, because we started with 30% of each senatorial district. We trained them and asked them to form focal group discussion. They defined what poverty is in their own context.”