|
|
|
Borno: “Our critics are not fair”
– Hajiya Maryam Bukar Petrol, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development
Hajiya Maryam Bukar Petrol, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social, Borno State
 |
By Sani Mohammed, Maiduguri
Controversy is brewing over
the N65million micro-credit
loan your ministry disbursed to women, what is the role of Her Excellency, Mrs. Fatima Ali Sheriff, wife of the Borno state governor in the exercise?
It is quite unfortunate that because of democracy and the freedom of expression constitutionally provided for every citizen, people say what they wish to say any how. But on the issue of the poverty alleviation and the involvement of Her Excellency, it will be a great travesty of justice to say that the person of Her Excellency is involved in any act of misappropriation. We have a Ministry of Poverty Alleviation, which is in charge of handling issues concerning poverty reduction in the state.
But when Her Excellency discovered that the women in the state especially those in the rural areas have not been benefiting from this scheme – especially when the women themselves complained to her and we later substantiated their claims that yes the women have not been getting this soft loans – Her Excellency then made a case for the women so that they too can benefit from these poverty alleviation facilities. This is a programme for every one in the state and the women – we all know that women constitute 50 percent of the population – so a poverty alleviation package of soft loans of N65 million was released by the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation in conjunction with the office of the first Lady who initiated the idea, to disburse to the women in six local government areas of the state, and it was done smoothly, in accordance with the specifications.
How really, was the micro-credit loan of N65million disbursed?
Yes. When the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Youth Development released the sum of N65million, the disbursement and distribution was done in conjunction with Her Excellency; I being the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, as well as the State President of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) was also involved in the exercise. Other women managing non-governmental organisations were also involved in the disbursement; like the market women associations, Federation of Moslem Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), and other stakeholders that deal with issues of women, were all involved in the identification of beneficiaries and the disbursement of this soft loan.
From your explanation, you seem to be saying that this money was specifically released for disbursement to women, as against claims that the N65 million was released to Her Excellency to facilitate the mobilisation of women for her Senatorial ambition, as claimed by a local weekly newspaper?
No, no, no. This money was specifically disbursed to the women at the grassroots in order to help them alleviate their problems, and also to empower them economically. So if there is anybody who instead of finding out how these funds have been judiciously disbursed, to now say it was used for democracy day celebration, I think is quite unfair and totally wrong.
How many local government areas benefited from the disbursement?
We earmarked six local government areas, that is two from each senatorial zone and all of them had so far benefited. These local government areas include Damboa, Jere, Gubio, Kaga, Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Gwoza. We have the vouchers for all the women that benefited from the poverty alleviation packages, and thank God that it was in the avoidance of these kind of unfounded allegations that we insisted that records must be kept properly and our committee members tried in that aspect.
Do you have an idea regarding the total number of women that benefited from the poverty alleviation package; and what criteria was used in selecting the beneficiaries?
We have well over 8,000 women who benefited. Each received a minimum of N10, 000 and a maximum of N200, 000, depending on the strenght of their capital base. And the criteria we used was to select the women from their Non Governmental Organisations, (NGO), Community Development Organisation (CDO), and through organisations like FOMWAN, cooperative Societies and other related women groups in the six local government areas.
In fact, the selection was done by their own people, especially by the president of each of these associations, because it is assumed that each of these leaders will be able to identify their members at the time of disbursement based on the number of names submitted in their different localities. And at each local government, Her Excellency visited the beneficiaries who were called forward to collect their money personally. Let me tell you, this was not in proxy, they had to present themselves, sign or thumb-print on the voucher against their names before the money would be handed over to them. The committee we set up was on ground to see that the payment of these soft loans was completed even after Her Excellency had left for the next town. We had credible groups like NCWS, FOMWAN, several NGOs and CDOs, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), amongst others who were all involved to see that there was nothing like bias of religion or ethnicity in the exercise and it turned out successfully.
And Her Excellency’s happiness was that this money actually went to the women who are needy, especially those in the remote grassroots that got the N10, 000 package.
But quite contrary to what you have said here, the allegations were that only three out of the 27 local government areas of the state were visited by Her Excellency, and that only N10 million was disbursed out of the N65 million allegedly released. How true is this?
I think all these events were even covered by the media when we went round the six local government areas selected from the three senatorial districts of the state. And I will tell you, without any fear of contradictions, that Her Excellency did not even set her eyes on the money from the day it was released till the day we accompanied her round the selected local government areas. All she did was to collect a package from us as we mention the names of a beneficiary and hand it to her. She gave us free hand to scrutinise the beneficiaries, package the money and so on. She did not touch a single kobo. It is sad, that some people are going so despicably low to say she pocketed some money – I think this is rather ridiculous. In fact, we have records of the entire disbursement and I even have the copy of the sub-committee’s report that was submitted to His Excellency some weeks ago.
I think all these mischievous speculations are cooked and spread by no other persons than enemies of this government, or by people who would have wanted us to do otherwise with the money. But thank God the First Lady, being a woman of honesty and integrity, had to carefully select women who have the fear of God, and sympathy for their fellow women to handle this job. The entire money released for disbursement as soft loan were committed to the exercise.
On the 22nd of May, we were at Damboa local government area and Her Excellency did the disbursement, while the state Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation and Youth Empowerment and I, were there to assist her. The commissioner for Poverty Alleviation and Youth Empowerment will hand over a package of the money to me as we call the beneficiary, I collected it and gave to Her Excellency who would further deliver it to the beneficiaries as they came forward to sign the pay voucher we prepared and collect it from her. In most cases, it was Her Excellency that will just do some official disbursement at each local government where she personally handed over the money to a reasonable number of selected beneficiaries before she will leave the rest for the committee to disburse, and we will move ahead to the next local government area. That was how we carried out the disbursement smoothly without hitches at any point.
Having made all these clarifications, what in your opinion motivated these allegations?
I have lots of respect for the journalism profession because my late husband was an editor of one of the leading newspapers in this country, and I appreciate what objective journalism is all about. I understand what constructive criticism is all about and I do know that objectivity and fairness, in reportorial parlance, is what makes journalism tick. I feel every journalist has the right to write about whatever information comes his or her way but on the grounds that the information is sourced from credible sources. But when somebody sits down in Abuja or wherever, and get spoon-fed on hear-says, then goes on 60 make frivolous allegations without checking to confirm the facts, then one begins to get very worried.
Everybody knew she visited six local government areas; and when people allege that the N65 million meant for disbursement to the women as soft loan packages for poverty alleviation was used to mobilise women from the local government areas to Maiduguri for the Democracy Day celebration and that even out of the money only N10 million was used, then any sane person will definitely question the credibility of such news medium. We have our records and you can all see where this money went to – look here (referring to bound copies of the report), we have the signature of all those that received the soft loans packages and here are their signatures or thumbprints (flipping through the Report) to signify that they collected the money. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
