The IdeaLab Agency has made an appeal to the National Assembly for the speedy passage of a bill seeking to establish the National Council for Public Assistance, targeted at widows, dependent children and orphans in Nigeria.
IdeaLab is an agency established by the Federal Government of Nigeria, to address the challenges of small holder farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises in accessing intervention funds in the country.
Speaking during a media conference at the National Assembly Monday, director general of the agency, Tyongi Emmanuel Aondoakaa, said establishment of the agency will help address issues of unemployment and other vices, believing that such challenges helped in fuelling the recent end bad governance protest across the country.
While commending Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, for bringing the bill back on the floor of the House after it failed at the 9th assembly, he said he was optimistic that the 10th assembly will consider the bill for speedy passage and its onward transmission to the president for assent because of its strategic importance in the current administration and aspiration President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2027.
“It is important to state here that, if this piece of legislation is revisited, repositioned as proposed and worked upon to align with the aspirations of the president as stated above, it will go ahead and address the yearnings of the demonstrators and street protesters of the #EndBadGovernance, to solve the problems of hunger, illiteracy, suffering of the ordinary masses of Nigeria and other social vices in the country.
“We are optimistic it will reduce tension in the land and give the legislators and the federal Government of Nigeria a high public approval rating and prospect of winning future elections for the politicians in power now”, he stated.