The Senate chamber was in an uproar on
Wednesday when senators of the All
Progressives Party and those of the
Peoples Democratic Party disagreed on
the payment of N5,000 stipend to each
jobless Nigerian.
A Peoples Democratic Party senator
representing the Federal Capital Territory,
Philip Aduda, had raised a prayer urging
the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
Federal Government to fulfil one of its
campaign promises of paying N5,000 to
unemployed youths monthly nationwide.
Aduda said this prayer was raised in order
to cushion the effect of economic
hardship on the unemployed in the
country.
Before Aduda raised the prayer, a PDP
senator from Cross River-East senatorial
district, Bassey Akpan, had sponsored a
motion titled, “Urgent need to curb the
soaring rate of unemployment in Nigeria.”
While contributing to the motion
sponsored by Akpan, the senator from
Osun-East senatorial district, Babajide
Omoworare, demanded the probe of the
way the Goodluck Jonathan administration
handled the Subsidy Re-investment and
Empowerment Programme, among other
poverty alleviation programmes.
Aduda, who is the senate minority whip
said, “The Federal Government should
immediately commence the payment of
the N5,000 monthly stipend it promised
during the pre-election campaign.”
The Senate Minority Leader, Senator
Godswill Akpabio, seconded Aduda’s
additional prayer.
But Omoworare immediately raised the
Senate Standing Order 53(6) to oppose
the additional prayer.
This led to a sharp disagreement between
the senators of the ruling APC and those
of the opposition PDP.
The Senate President, Senator Bukola
Saraki, however, intervened after about
22 minutes by bringing the rancorous
session to an end.
He first asked Aduda to repeat his
additional prayer, which the lawmaker
did.
However, when Saraki put the additional
prayer to voice vote, the ayes obviously
had the loudest voice – in support of the
payment of the stipend but the Senate
President banged his gavel in support of
the nay voice vote coming from the APC
senators.
Saraki, thereafter, gave Omoworare the
privilege of raising another additional
prayer.
The Osun senator said, “I want to move
that the immediate past government be
made to account for every penny spent
on SURE-P and other poverty alleviation
programmes, and I so move, Mr.
President.”
When Saraki put the question to voice
vote, the ayes response came from the
APC senators, but the PDP senators kept
quiet.
Saraki told the session that the issue of
unemployment transcended party lines.
He said, “Unemployment affects all of us.
We should stay above party line. We all
agree that the Federal Government alone
cannot do it. It is the private sector that
can do it but an enabling environment
must be provided.”
Moving his motion earlier, Akpan
observed that the latest figures of
Nigeria’s soaring unemployment situation
by the National Bureau of Statistics had
increased to 8.2 per cent in the second
quarter of 2015 from 7.5 per cent in the
first quarter of 2015 and 6.4 per cent in
the last quarter of 2014.
He said, “The latest statistics as released
by the bureau reveal that economically
active population or working age
comprising Nigerians within the age range
of 15 to 64, is now 103.5 million,
increasing from 102.8 million in the last
quarter of 2015 while the unemployed
labour force now stands at 74 million
Nigerian youths.”
He expressed concern that about N2tn
had been spent on intervention funds by
the Federal Government to boost the
productivity of various sectors of the
economy in the last five years without
any commensurate impact on
employment generation.
He said, “With a projected population
growth of 200m by 2020, we project an
unemployed population of about 100m
Nigerians or more. Where lies the
economic future of this country?
“If the unemployed youths of this country
are effectively engaged in gainful
employment, terrorism, kidnapping,
armed robbery and other socio-economic
and cultural vices will be drastically
reduced. As the saying goes, ‘an idle
mind is the devil’s workshop’,” he said.
In their various contributions, the
senators overwhelmingly supported the
motion.
