Lead By Example In Fight Against Poverty, Falana Tells Tinubu

Posted by Nwa Diokpa Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Sunday, August 3rd, 2025

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has tasked President Bola Tinubu to take a more proactive step in the fight against poverty by fully committing federal resources to social welfare initiatives.

Falana stated this in a statement he issued on Sunday.

The statement of the senior advocate comes on the heels of President Tinubu’s address to governors of the All Progressives Congress when he tasked them to deepen their grassroots interventions to ease economic hardship.

“Nigerians are still complaining at the grassroots. To you, the governors, you must water the grass more and deliver progressive change to Nigerians. May God bless our democracy and grant us more fertile lands”, Tinubu had told the APC governors.

Falana, reacting to the President’s call, stated that the responsibility to initiate concrete welfare action is the primary work of the Federal Government.

“Instead of begging state governments to ‘wet ground more’, President Bola Tinubu is urged to ensure that the National Social Investment Programme Agency Act is adopted and enacted into law by the 36 state governments,” he said.

According to him, instead of putting large sums of public funds into administrative or infrastructural luxuries, both federal and state governments must show priority to the welfare of the poor.

Falana also slammed the disparity in federal spending as he compared the ₦32.7 billion benchmarked for Nigeria’s National Social Investment Programme in the 2025 budget with a recent project that gulped even more.

“A government that recently claimed to have spent the sum of ₦39 billion for the renovation of the International Conference Centre at Abuja at the Federal Capital Territory cannot justify the allocation of ₦32.7 billion to fund the National Social Investment Programmes for 2025 to support the 133 million people that are said to be multi-dimensionally poor in the country,” he said.

Falana also stated that this budget padding highlights how disconnected the country’s fiscal priorities have become, especially when compared with the generous allowances federal lawmakers get.

He marvelled at the logic of a system where: “₦21 million is paid monthly to each senator and ₦15 million to each member of the House of Representatives,” yet essential social programmes are not properly funded.

Falana, therefore, tasked the Federal Executive Council to show the same urgency it gives to infrastructure spending to the welfare sector of the country.

He added: “Therefore, the Federal Executive Council should, as a matter of urgency, approve not less than ₦5 trillion to fund the National Social Investment Programme.

“The management of the fund should not be left solely in the hands of government officials, but should involve elected representatives of trade unions and credible civil society organisations to ensure transparency and effectiveness.”