…first State to pass it in Nigeria – UNICEF

By Mary

Ondo State governor, Arakurin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has signed the first of its kind Social Protection Appropriation bill in Nigeria into law.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, being the champion of the bill disclosed that Ondo is the first state to sign such bill into law in the country. Commending the State governor on the development, the representative of UNICEF Akure Field Office, Dr. Adeniyi Olaleye noted that implementation of the law will compel government to take care of the most vulnerable people in the society, especially women and children.

His words : “The Social Protection bill that was passed into law today actually signified the fact that Ondo state government is thinking about the welfare of the most vulnerable in the society and since we (UNICEF) also works to protect the interest of the women and children this is therefore well in line with our mandate. ( UNICEF representatives with the Commissioner and the Permanent Secretary of the Pioneer ministry)

“I have been working with them for the past one and half year to come up with this, so today is a milestone and an important day for women and children in Ondo state because the law provides for the state to take care of them.

“I can tell you that Ondo state is the first state in the country to pass this bill into law, the Federal Government had a policy on social protection that was approved by Federal Executive Council sometime in 2017, but at the sub-national level, Ondo State is the first to pass it into law”.

Speaking on the collaboration of UNICEF with the State to come up with the bill, Olaleye explanation that, “The social investment program has been on in Ondo State for awhile but we noticed that we have just fragmented MDAs doing different things that are not documented, the first thing we (UNICEF) did was to harmonise all of these laws and come up with a document that shows what the government is doing in all the social investment programme; for us, it is important because we now have a law that make it mandatory for government to take actions to protect the most vulnerable in the society”.

According to him, the law also made provision for continuity which would make it difficult for subsequent governments to discontinue it in future. Signing the bill into law, Governor Akeredolu noted that the bill presents the very reason why there should be a government, saying “the moment you are not able to protect your people, then they don’t need government”.

Earlier, the Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Bamidele Oleyelogun while presenting the bill to the governor to append his signature, had noted that the law when implemented will protect lives and property of residents of the state.