N500BN SIP: Aisha Buhari spoke out of ignorance – Uwais

Maryam Uwais, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on social investment, has hit back at the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha, over her criticism of Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes, SIP, describing her outburst the result of ignorance.

It would be recalled that Aisha Buhari had on Saturday described the N500 billion SIP as a woeful failure, especially in the North.

The President’s wife spoke at a programme organised for women as part of the second term inauguration activities of President Buhari.

According to Uwais, Mrs Buhari would have been able to find all beneficiaries of the project if she had access to available data.

The presidential aide, who spoke on Channels Television on Monday, said about 290,000 beneficiaries from Adamawa, Aisha’s home state, were being paid under the initiative, adding that she spoke without the knowledge of available records on SIP.

Uwais said: “I believe that if she (Aisha) were to listen to the information they have there, if she were to check our data, she would be able to find all the beneficiaries.

Read also: EDO: Group kicks against Obaseki’s second term bid

“Yes, she may not have met them. But we are in 12 local government areas for the cash transfer. We are also in 12 LGAs for loans. So, I think we have at least 290,000 beneficiaries directly that we are paying in Adamawa State.”

Continuing, Uwais said the school feeding programme was also ongoing in over 1,000 public primary schools in Adamawa and that more could have been done with more funding.

“We have over 11,000 graduates recruited and working in her home state. We have non-graduates, 440; we started the school feeding programme in October 2018, we are in 1,054 public primary schools,” she said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now