Jonathan Nwokpor
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Allegations of massive fraud in the operations of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, NSIPA, as well as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, have sparked calls for President Bola Tinubu to probe the administration of his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari.
A year after taking office as president of Nigeria, Buhari established NSIPA to oversee his administration’s National Social Investments Programmes (NSIP). The Social Investment Programmes were designed to address hunger and poverty throughout the nation.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation oversees NSIPA as an agency.
Buhari’s administration also set up the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation — originally the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. On Wednesday, August 21, 2019, Buhari made an executive proclamation creating the Ministry.
It was anticipated that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation’s general mandate, along with the NSIPA programs N-power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP), and Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF), would lessen poverty in the nation and help to struggle Nigerians.
However, various Nigerians, including political activists and representatives of civil society organizations, who spoke with DAILY POST, pointed out that creating institutions has proven counterproductive.
According to them, corruption is now closely associated with the NSIPA, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and Poverty Alleviation.
The former minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, and the suspended national coordinator and chief executive officer of the NSIPA, Halima Shehu, were recently detained and questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) regarding allegations of corruption in the handling of N37.1 billion in social intervention funds.
When Umar-Farouq served as Buhari’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, it is said that N37.1 billion was embezzled.
Fraud accusations have shaken the Ministry—now called the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation—even under a new leader. President Bola Tinubu has suspended the present minister, Mrs. Betta Edu, due to her purported involvement in an N585 million fraud. Edu is accused of attempting to move N585 million intended for social intervention initiatives into a personal bank account.
Tinubu has suspended Betta Edu and Halima Shehu, the chief executives of NSIPA and its overseeing Ministry, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, in reaction to the severe fraud allegations that have rocked both organizations.
Shehu was suspended due to suspected financial misbehavior, while Edu remains on suspension while her involvement in the purported N585 million scam is looked into.
Tinubu has gone one step further and suspended all four NSIPA projects (N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Government Enterprise and Empowerment, and Home Grown School Feeding) for the first six weeks.
The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, or OSGF, announced the suspension and mentioned Tinubu’s “raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the Programs’ beneficiaries.”
Tinubu should probe Buhari’s government
While many Nigerians have applauded Tinubu for swiftly suspending the NSIPA initiatives, Edu and Usman, the President, are urged to investigate the Buhari administration in more detail.
Speaking with ZINGTIE, Willy Ezugwu, the Secretary General of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), emphasized that Tinubu must look into Buhari’s administration due to instances of significant fraud that have been discovered in the workings of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and NSIPA, two important institutions of Buhari’s administration.
“Tinubu ought to look at Buhari’s administration. Nigeria had a rise in corruption during that (Buhari’s) presidency. There is no way that certain members of Buhari’s administration will escape prosecution if Tinubu is sincere about combating corruption. Ezugwu stated that Tinubu should stop fighting corruption if Buhari’s administration is not investigated.
Ibrahim Zikirullahi, Executive Director of the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), also requested that Tinubu look into Buhari’s administration. He pointed out that, based on its history, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was established to plunder the federal coffers.
In an interview with ZINGTIE, Zikirullahi pointed out that since there were other government organizations with comparable responsibilities, the Ministry didn’t need to be established in the first place.
Zikirullahi said, “From all indications and from all that has happened in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, it is clear that it was set up just to fleece the country. What has been uncovered so far is just a scratch. If a detailed investigation is to be conducted, more will be uncovered.
“Now, can we say that what the Ministry has done so far is equivalent to the mass stealing that has been perpetrated? No.
“There was not even any need for the creation of that Ministry. If you have a Ministry of Women Affairs, you can domicile whatever department you want to create under it, not creating a full-fledged Ministry.”
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation currently houses the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), founded in 1999 to handle catastrophes in Nigeria.
However, Zikirullahi feels that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is an advanced form of NEMA.
He said, “I would have expected Tinubu to hold on and conduct an investigation before even appointing a minister into that Ministry.
“He should have done a thorough check to know if we even need that Ministry. What is their work? What exactly are they doing? It is NEMA that Buhari elevated to that Ministry. And what have they done so far to alleviate poverty? Even Betta Edu, between the time she was appointed and the time she was suspended, what practical things has she done to alleviate poverty?”
Fraudulent implementation of Conditional Cash Transfer Programme
The North-West’s conditional cash transfer plan was observed to be implemented under the supervision of Zikirullahi’s group, CHRICED.
Zikirullahi provided evidence of the program’s fraudulentness based on observations made while observing the exercise.
“They talk about palliatives here and there, conditional cash transfer to the poorest of the poor. My organisation monitored the disbursement of the conditional cash transfer of the Abacha loot in the North-West, and we saw the shady deals that were going on.
“Where they are supposed to pay N10,000 to a household, they will just give them an envelope and say ‘sign, sign, sign’, and the person will sign and be smiling but when they count the money they find N4,000 in the envelope. This was what was going on.
“In some cases, when they want to disburse, they will fail to notify us or they will give us a different date. We travelled far and wide, only to find out that it had been postponed, or it was conducted yesterday. We saw all that and we did a report and submitted it. Nothing happened.”
Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, or CISLAC, also discussed the necessity for Tinubu to look into Buhari’s administration, pointing out that a great deal went wrong during the previous administration.
“The truth is that there are so many wrongdoings that happened under Muhammadu Buhari. You can take some well established cases where breaches happened. I think they have already invited Sadiya Abba-Farouq.
“There are others like the former Minister of Justice (Abubakar Malami) and the former Minister of Aviation (Hadi Sirika). Once there is evidence of their wrongdoing, I think the Tinubu government should go ahead and do that (probe them),” Rafsanjani told ZINGTIE.
Rafsanjani, also the president of the Transition Monitoring Group, or TMG, said that Tinubu’s team includes a few critical Buhari administration personnel who have also been charged with corruption.
“The Tinubu administration itself is not very strong in morality because many of the people Tinubu appointed were also part and parcel of the Buhari administration.
“They were also having a lot of corruption allegations against them,” he said, suggesting that it will be difficult for Tinubu to probe Buhari’s government.
Buhari announced plan to probe Jonathan’s government
Shortly after taking office in 2015, Buhari announced that he would look into the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He threatened to detain and prosecute former ministers and other government officials who embezzled funds from Nigeria.
In response to suggestions that the investigation be expanded to look at the administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalam Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida, and Femi Adesina, the spokesperson for President Buhari made it clear that the inquest will only look into Jonathan’s administration.
Even though a few Jonathan administration officials—including the former minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke—were finally indicted in court for alleged corruption, little information was released regarding the investigation’s findings.
Why Tinubu will not probe Buhari
In an interview with ZINGTIE, Eze Onyekpere, Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), noted that it appears there is an unspoken rule that no Nigerian president holds his predecessor accountable.
While questioning Buhari is correct, Onyekpere pointed out that it is doubtful Tinubu will do so.
“Have you ever heard of a Nigerian sitting president calling the former one to account? In Nigeria, it seems to be an unwritten norm.
“Buhari handed over to Tinubu, so if you are expecting him to probe his predecessor, that is going to be very difficult. It is the right thing to do, but I don’t see it happening,” he said.
“They (sitting Presidents) don’t want to set that precedent because they wouldn’t want their successor to call them back. They know if that precedent is set, it may get to their turn,” he added.
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