A group under the auspice of Concerned Citizens for Poverty Eradication (CCPE) in Nigeria has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his unbiased leadership and swift action towards addressing issues of alleged fraud in Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and the National Social Investment Programme Agency.
The president of the group, Comrade Daniel Akowe, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Monday.
Akowe noted that the action of the President to immediately suspend the embattled Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, and its corresponding NSIPA has further demonstrated his stand to fight corruption in Nigeria.
Akowe commended President Tinubu APC-led Federal Government and his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari, for initiating people-oriented programmes aimed at eradicating poverty in Nigeria.
According to Akowe, the swift action of President Tinubu has further confirmed to the whole world that his administration means well for the people of Nigeria in eradicating poverty.
“Our President took a step further to constitute a presidential panel to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s operations to recommend the necessary frameworks of the NSIPA.
“We are therefore urging the Presidential Panel to incorporate the state coordinators of the programmes appointed by the State Executive Governors to be part of these reforms in NSIPA. This would assist the presidential panel in having adequate insights into the status of implementations, impacts, challenges, and recommendations for improvements.
“The state government is an integral part of these programmes. From our findings, the governors appointed the state coordinators, also known as focal persons, who implement the programmes at the state level at the grassroots.
“The ministry and the agency are only administering the management and financing, making payments directly to all beneficiaries, and awarding contracts to contractors and consultants from the headquarters, but the state offices that are implementing and monitoring the programmes should be prioritised by the Federal Government. They have the technical know-how because they are the ones interfacing with the beneficiaries in the fields at the grassroots.
“The Federal Government, on the other hand, is advised to also liaise with the state governors to ensure sanctions against any state coordinator who violates or defrauds the beneficiaries in the course of the implementations.”.
“We are aware, based on our findings, how this programme has been impactful on the lives of millions of poor and vulnerable people in Nigeria.
“The NPower creates massive jobs for unemployed graduates and non-graduates. School feeding is providing meals for pupils in public primary schools, thereby increasing enrollments in public schools and improving the healthy nutrition of the children.
“The Conditional Cash Transfer is a livelihood support and uplifting programme that is directly reaching out to the downtrodden poorest of the poor in rural communities, benefiting millions of poor women. The government enterprise and empowerment programme (GEEP) is also creating access to finance for microbusiness owners, market women, and smallholder farmers. We gathered these findings from various states.
“We are also aware of the newly initiated alternative school programme for almajiris and street beggars and the grant for vulnerable groups, all under the National Social Investment Programmes. These are laudable programmes with immense benefits to over 15 million indigent Nigerians, based on our findings so far. This is unprecedented, the first in history by any government in the history of Nigeria.”
He, however, identified inconsistencies, delays in payments and unpaid backlogs, poor media coverage, and failure to strengthen the state offices of NSIP as some of the challenges affecting the laudable programme of the Federal Government.
Explaining further, Akowe said, “The programme is not frequent; if a programme that ought to eradicate or alleviate poverty is not frequent, it will affect the impacts as expected, and the aims may be defeated.
“We have had complaints from beneficiaries of various components over delays in payments and unpaid backlogs by the Ministry. This is also not encouraging for a programme aimed at alleviating poverty in the country. Prompt payments to beneficiaries would help in evaluating the impacts on the beneficiaries.
“The poor media is affecting the beautiful intentions of the Federal Government over this programme; the Federal Government is doing a lot, pumping huge sums to fight poverty, but it is under-reported by the Ministry in Charge.”.
While calling on the government to sensitise the general public rigorously and adequately on public programmes, the group added that the state offices implementing the programmes should be strengthened by the federal government and not leave everything in the hands of the governors.
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“While the Governors provide offices, appoint state coordinators, and fund the implementation logistics to complement and support the programmes, the Federal Government still needs to prioritise the state offices in terms of support, especially the support for wider media publicity and utility vehicles for effective implementations, monitoring, continuity, and sustainability of the programmes.”
“We recommend that whoever is going to head the ministry and agency should be carefully selected, and he or she is expected to possess the experience and technical know-how on the job as it concerns humanitarian affairs and social investments due to the technicalities and sensitivities surrounding these programmes. This will give room for results, accountability, and transparency for public confidence,” he added.
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