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The latest episode of financial cruise piloted by the headship of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Dr Betta Edu, has again opened up the can of worms in the nascent ministry that has made it a hotbed of financial embezzlement. Apart from this saga imposing the re-assessment of the law that set up the ministry, its objectives and day to day activity must also be looked into so as to see whether it is in consonance with the expectation of Nigerians. This is important at this stage due to the fresh revelation of multifaceted financial misappropriation in the ministry that has simultaneously landed its headships in the net of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFFC).
Established on Wednesday August 21st, 2019 by an executive pronouncement by former President Muhammadu Buhari, the vision of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development upon creation was to serve as a social protection system that is proactive, human, inclusive and sustainable for the improvement and general welfare of the people. In this direction, some of the laudable programmes put in place through which the welfare of the people would effectively be addressed thereby fulfilling the objective of the ministry include N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), among others. But over the last four years, it has been one financial misappropriation to another.
Agreeing with a research by Paul Harvey tagged: “evidence of corruption on humanitarian aid” which posits that humanitarian aid agencies devote time and energy to combat corruption but very reluctant to openly discuss it because of the fear of losing the support for aids among donor countries as well as losing the trust of the public, it is also important to know that without talking about it more openly and tackling it better, the core humanitarian standard that is principled in building trust and facilitate access would not be realized.
As the reason for the multidimensional corruption in our own humanitarian ministry could be traced to the absence of a thorough discussion and deep investigation by government into the activities of the ministry since its inception, hence the current distrust by Nigerians, it is therefore important at this juncture to take a cursory look at some of their programmes and the various misappropriations that impede their success. We may proffer solution or to see together, the needlessness of the ministry, thus, immediate abolition.
Coming under the leadership of Mrs Umar-Farouq at inception, Nigerian Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has over the last four years become one of the most well funded ministries, perhaps because of the high level of humanitarian crisis around us. Ironically however, it is also the most poorly managed ministry as one financial misappropriation has led to another thereby making it so notorious a ministry. Statistics from budget office has it that in 2020, about N374 billion was budgeted into the ministry while it was about N465 billion in 2021. In 2022, around N514 billion was budgeted while 2023 and 2024 respectively have N382 billion and N135 billion. But the management and impact of this huge budgetary allocation of about N2 trillion, has done more harm to the country than good.
The journey of fraud in the ministry copiously began with the school feeding programme in 2020 during COVID-19 lockdown when Umar-Farouq claimed that N523.3 million was spent on feeding basic school pupils at a time the pupils were with their parents because schools were not on session because of COVID-19 lockdown. This was how the minister tactically opened the gate of embezzlement in the ministry for her subordinates and the harvest has never remained the same.
It was successfully established across many states that the programme was fraught with myriads of problems such as large scale corruption, irregularities, politicization, poor quality control, lack of transparency and accountability. To start with, research showed that the selection process of the food vendors in some schools was marred by controversies as loyalty to the ruling party was the required competence which automatically fenced out many food vendors who have been selling food to the pupils prior the initiation of the programme.
As one of the reasons for school feeding programme was to address malnutrition due to poverty among Nigerian children and its attendant consequences on education, this objective was further betrayed as it was reported in many states that contractors supplied expired rice and poorly nourished meals to pupils. In some cases, it was the quantity of food that was affected because of diversion of raw materials by the cooks for their personal use. This implies that the system added to the problem of malnutrition among school pupils instead of addressing it.
The cash grant programme was another huge joke that left officers of the ministry smiling to their banks as money meant for rural women found its way into their private accounts. Investigation by International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) revealed widespread corruption and fraud in the disbursement of funds and selection of intended beneficiaries for the cash grant programme for rural women in many states. According to ICIR, three days to the end of 2020, Oladapo John Ogunyanmodi, received N86.4 million into his account with payment description ‘Non-personal advance payment’ as a grant for rural women in Jigawa State. Although, 4,000 vulnerable women were targeted in Jigawa State but the money paid into Oladapo’s account could go for 4,320 poor and vulnerable women in the state which is far over the projected beneficiaries. In Kano State, Devine Sekibo received 140.8 million, an amount which can only go for 7,040 vulnerable women, as against the 8,000 vulnerable women projected.
ICIR also revealed that Mustapha Babura who was the focal person of the social investment programme in Jigawa State was in charge of the social register. When the programme started, he said he didn’t know how they came up with the names of the beneficiaries. “No doubt the project was executed, but what I don’t know and I can’t tell you, is how they arrived at selecting the beneficiaries, it might be from the social register in Abuja, we were never contacted to submit any names.” The adoption of manual method in the conditional transfer paved way for endemic corruption as rural dwellers complained to have only heard about it in radio. A research and policy analyst at Budgit, Vahyala Kwaga revealed that lawmakers received and repackaged the palliative before distributing it to their constituents. The question that comes to mind here is, how did it get to the lawmakers if the ministry has done its work?
The Conditional Cash Transfer Programme was generally marred with many challenges such as lack of accurate data which was a recipe for the abuse and manipulation the programmed encountered, nepotism et al. A report by Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) titled, ’Spot Checks’ on payment to beneficiary, revealed that most of the beneficiaries were in the northern part of Nigeria. ANEEJ report showed that 90.46 per cent of total fund distributed from January to April 2020 was paid to beneficiaries in the northern part of the country while 9.54 per cent was paid to beneficiaries in the south. While some beneficiaries were paid N20, 000, some were paid N10, 000 depending on when they applied with no reason given for these variations by government.
It was even reported that cooperative organizations were shortchanging beneficiaries between N2, 000-N4, 000. Agents in many States like Oyo, Kogi and others ran out of cash and re-scheduled payment to beneficiaries with the attendant inconveniences. There were also reports about disbursement officers fraudulently swapping names of genuine beneficiaries with fake ones and smiling home with about three million naira every month while the genuine beneficiaries were left to languish in penury while some die without receiving anything.
The N-power programme was another scheme that was devoid of humanity. Initiated with the aim of empowering Nigerian youths by providing them with skill development opportunities and temporary employments, many challenges impeded the effectiveness of these objectives. One of such challenges is the delay in payment of stipend to volunteers which of course affects motivation. For instance, despite the gigantic budgetary provision, the batch C stream 2 volunteers of the programme have only been paid for three month with nine month outstanding. Yet, huge amount of money exchanges hands illegally on daily basis.
The mother of corruption in the ministry was among leadership and when the head has decided to lead the harvest of embezzlement, every part of the body must join. Having inaugurated it during lockdown in 2020 by leveling great lies against innocent children and pocketed N523.3 million meant for their food, Umar-Farouq was further exposed in September, same year by Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to have diverted N2.67 billion meant for school feeding into private account. Yet in all, she has not given Nigerians concrete explanation on the whereabouts of these monies. Now in the net of EFCC, Nigerians await with bated breath the destination of N37.1 billion meant for vulnerable persons but looted through consultants and not directly to the beneficiaries.
Taking over from Umar-Farouq, one would have expected Betta Edu to really be better in managing the ministry particularly after just two months of wasting tax payers’ money on a retreat organized by President Tinubu. Does it mean that Betta Edu did not learn anything from the retreat, was it a pure arrogance of power or just the desire to continue from where her predecessor stopped by taking Nigerian for granted. This is simply because the problem of transferring money to private account that stopped with her predecessor has ironically continued with her with the movement of N585.2 million to a private account from the National Social Investment office account.
Why can’t Betta Edu use some of these monies to settle the N-power volunteers who have worked but yet to be paid for 9-months before embarking on new projects? As well, if the November 6, 2023 allegation of about N72 million flight ticket and airport taxes for the staffers of her ministry to go to Kogi State that has no known airport is true, is a matter of time.
Halima Shehu, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) was not left out in the embezzlement spree as EFCC has already recovered about N39.8 billion out of the N44.8 billion allegedly signed off from government account in five days and transfer to individual accounts through commercial banks without any approval from the President, Federal Executive Council or the minister in charge of her ministry. Certainly, no ministry can survive in this kind of environment.
At this juncture, Bola Tinubu must see this financial saga coming at the morning of his administration as a litmus test. He must therefore call for a forensic audit of the entire ministry from August 2019. If there is need for the ministry to continue to exist, each programme should be restructured vis-a-vis leadership because the bulk of the crisis therein stopped at leadership failure. A season administrator with cognate experience in human relations should be employed to man the ministry and not any scalawag that has no iota of human relations because it is a sensitive ministry.
Scrapping the ministry may not as well, be a bad news because what brings about the initiation of humanitarian aid in any society is the absence of gainful employment. Tinubu should focus on reducing cost of governance more and more so there will be money to revamp the ailing industries such as Port Harcourt refinery and Ajaokuta Steel Plant as promised and to bring up new ones so people can be gainfully employed and not necessarily depend on a ruse called “humanitarian aid.”
Humanitarian Ministry: An Illicit Conduit that must be Wedged or Scrapped.
Olushola Omogbehin a public affairs commentator writes from Abuja FCT Nigeria
