Kano govt justifies N854m for mass weddings as palliatives

Kano State government has justified the approval of N854 million for mass weddings as part of the palliative measures rolled out to the vulnerable people of the state.

The Secretary to the State Government, Abdullahi Baffa Bichi, while featuring on Trust TV’s Daybreak programme, said the mass wedding initiative is a campaign promise but could also be considered palliative in this trying moment.

He said, “I can’t understand when you say making a bad situation worse by marrying off daughters of the vulnerable. We all know the cost of wedding. It is difficult for some households to marry off their daughters even though they have suitors who will marry them because of low income. It is also a form of palliative.

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“There is an unintended cost of keeping your daughters that have reached the age of marriage that have their suitors and the parents are not able to prepare what is needed. We want to reduce the spread of social vices which is a major source of poverty,” he added.

Daily Trust reported that some people in the state are challenging the government’s decision to spend such an amount for weddings rather than direct empowerment.

Similarly, Bichi, who said the state government had since flagged off the distribution of relief items from the FG’s intervention, added that the state’s population was not considered in the sharing formula.

“In reality, the distribution across the state is not equitable. A state with a population of 45 million people with 44 local government councils and 40 state house of assembly members, and you are allocating the same amount to that state with a population of not more than five million. The palliatives ought to have been distributed by the population.

Bichi added that the state government had set up committees across localities to allow for seamless and effective distribution exercise.

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