A bill seeking to empower poor Nigerians living in the rural areas with unfailing income and jobs that would provide 100 days of paid work per year scales through second reading in the Senate on Wednesday.
The bill titled, ‘The Rural Employment Guarantee Bill 2021, was proposed and sponsored by APC senator representing Niger East, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa.
According to Musa while justifying the bill, he explained that the bill among others attempts to provide livelihood security in rural neighborhoods by giving at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage assistance in every financial year to every family whose adult member volunteers do skilled manual work.
He said the bill when enacted into law would empower the rural poor through the procedures of a rights-based law.
He said it would ensure a strong social safety net for vulnerable groups, bolster the natural resource base of rural employment and serve as a model of governance reform that is docked on the principles of transparency and grass-root democracy.
He added that the National Rural Employment Guarantee bill aims to reduce poverty by providing extra work for those who need it, while also providing empowerment and insurance when other sources of work dry up.
Citing the Poor Employment Act of 1817 in Britain, and the New Deal Programs in the United States in the 1930s, Musa explained that the piece of legislation was similarly intended to be an intervention that makes government an employer of last resort.
He noted that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would monitor the implementation of the scheme in association with state governments.
Contributing to the debate, Senator Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West), threw his weight behind the passage of the bill into law.
He said, having agencies backed by law to oversee the implementation of such schemes for the poor would ensure that they are not abused.
He said, “In our nation today, Mr. President, most of these palliatives that the present government has put in place have been abused because you have a situation where names are duplicated.
“It is even difficult for you to know those who are benefiting.
“The bill my brother is seeking is for us to have a formal agency for social security that will take care of all employment problems and even health problems of people who are not gainfully employed. It must be holistic.
“This bill is good, the intention is good, but I think this bill must go further to make it a holistic solution to the problem of unemployment in our nation, so that it is not abused, and so that in every local government in Nigeria, you have an agency in charge that will take care of unemployment of our people.
“In having the law, we must also have the punitive measures in place for those who would abuse it, so that people will know that this bill is intended to alleviate the suffering of people, and by extension, Mr. President, guarantee the security of our nation.
“Most of the people who are into crime today, are out of frustration of unemployment. We have a large number of unemployed people.
“Today, we have up to two hundred universities and polytechnics producing graduates.
“So, I think we must advise our government. Progressive as this government is to palliatives, let us formalize these palliative measures by having a social security agency in every local government of Nigeria, and let us put a law in place to make sure that nobody abuses it.”
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, suggested the bill to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development for additional work after passing the second reading.
The Committee which is chaired by Senator Abdullahi Adamu was given four weeks to report back to the Senate.
In a similar action, the Smallholder Farmers Protection Bill 2021, also scaled second reading on Wednesday.
The bill sponsored by Senator Muhammad Enagi Bima (Niger South) was also suggested by the Senate President to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Also, the Petroleum Industry Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021; Chartered Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2021; and Federal College of Agriculture, Shani (Establishment) Bill, 2021, passed second reading during plenary.
While the Petroleum Industry Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, was recommended to the Joint Committees on Petroleum (Upstream); Petroleum (Downstream); and Oil and Gas, the other two were suggested to the Committees on Establishment and Public Service; and Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND for further inputs, respectively.
The Committees were all given four weeks to turn in their reports to the chamber in plenary.
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