Minister: It’s Elitist Thinking N5,000 Intervention can’t Lift Nigerians out of Poverty

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The Minister of Humanitarian Services, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, has stressed that those who write off the present administration’s N5,000 monthly national cash transfer as insufficient are being elitist in their thinking.

Farouk spoke Thursday at a ministerial briefing, at the State House, Abuja, while reacting to a question on how relevant the cash transfer initiative is to the federal government’s plan to save 100 million Nigerians from extreme poverty.

According to her, the ministry had seen, through direct contact with the beneficiaries, who are categorized as the poor and vulnerable of society, and had seen that it helps them escape from the precarious situation of their social status to a better one.

Her words: “If you look at the people that you are taking this intervention to, N5,000 means a lot to them because these are poor and vulnerable households and it changes their status, but for you and me, N5,000 is not even enough for us to buy recharge card, that’s the difference.

“When people say N5,000 does not save people, that is an elitist statement, honestly because we’ve had causes to go to the field, and we have seen these people that when you give them this N5,000, they cried and shed tears because they’ve never seen N5,000 in their lives. So, it goes a long way, it changes their status and by that, it lifts them from one stage to another.”

Details later…