Why survival funds and other NSIP initiatives are not felt at the grassroots

I have gotten used to the fact that we are in a dog-eat-dog world, where the rich will keep taking from the poor and the politicians from the people. However, what I cannot get used to, is the poor who knows what poverty and struggle are, when presented with the opportunity also taking things from their fellow poor folks.

At a business center, I met some guys who owned small businesses in that area filling out some forms. It was one of those Social Investment Programs (NSIP) where the government gives out cash. Apparently, the ”facilitator” of this grant (which was around N20,000) had asked them to return 50% to him as kickback.

It broke my heart into many pieces when one of the business owners told me this has been the norm, some sort of “standard practice” at the grassroots level where the facilitators or focal persons ask for kickbacks. Due to the desperation and ignorance, the masses agree to such outrageous extortion.

He told me about the survival funds. The federal government through its survival funds initiative decided to cushion the effect of the coronavirus on small businesses and enterprises. The scheme will support the payroll obligations by paying between N50,000(max) and N30,000(min) for 3months. That is, the government will decide to pay the staff of a business instead of the business owners paying themselves.

A man registered a company, added about 50 “employees”, uses their bank statements and details to somehow bypass the verification just to collect the survival funds for his “business”. When those employees receive the N30,000, they return N25,000 kickbacks to this person and go home with just N5,000. This process will repeat itself for three months. While the poor folks go home with a meager N5,000 each month, he smiles home with N1.2million.

A school that pays its staff N15,000 also applied and was granted. The management would ask their staff who were being paid by the FG through the survival funds to return N15,000 to them, leaving those staff with N15,000. They can’t pay their staff well, the government decides to do that on their behalf, they still cheat them heartlessly!

Similarly, a philanthropist decided to help out widows and orphans, he decided to give N40,000 grants to the widows to start a small business. Those put in charge of disbursement asked those widows to return N30,000 as kickbacks if not they won’t get the money or their names removed. The philanthropist goes to sleep thinking he did something great, not knowing those in charge had messed it up for him.

On my way out a few months ago, I heard on the radio about some yam sellers who said when a Governor (from the south-south) visited them, he bought their yams for N1,000 per tuber, and for about more than 1400 tubers of yam, they were happy they will make at least N1.4million. On taking the yams to the government house, those in charge after collecting the millions from the governor decided to pay them N400 per tuber of yams.

A billionaire politician who has gained all his wealth through stealing from our collective wealth will decide (perhaps out of guilt) to give a hundred poor, less privileged persons N15,000 each per month for one year as “empowerment”.

For this, he would hire a facilitator (not so poor but hustling) who rents a house and manages a bike and pay him N80,000 per month for that one year.

Guess what will happen? This hustler dude who we expected to understand what it means to be poor and suffer, who we expected to understand the plight of this less privileged, will give each family N3,000 per month, and direct the other thousands of N12,000s to his pocket!

This is how cruel men have become! This is why no matter what the government does we barely feel its impact at the grassroots level. Many would kill their own to drive Range Rovers and drink top whiskey. We live in an ocean of unexplained wealth.

By my father’s definition, when you harm poor people, you forfeit being described as a human being!

Corruption and stealing from poor people is the new, reloaded, and reinvigorated trend: a crime against humanity, no, a crime against the poor!

In addition to wondering why God created death, I also wondered why he created hellfire. Why create us only to dump us in it? Then I also realized some rich men take and take from the poor and fellow poor men who when presented with an opportunity also takes and take from the poor.

Then I admit that it is only fair and important for hellfire to exist since men like these also exist!

Isa Eneye Mubarak, who writes from Abuja, can be reached via [email protected]