The implementation of the Federal Government’s Social Investment and Zonal Intervention Programmes has come under the boots of critics and observers of national issues. The programmes, which were articulated in the government’s Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) that preceded the 2016 “budget of change”, was part of the government’s three-pronged approach to governance of fighting corruption, addressing insecurity and growing the economy.
In that regard, the social investment programme commenced in 2016 with an agreed annual budgetary allocation of N500billion which has been sustained since then for the first past four (4) years, it was a whooping sum of about N2trillion.
The programme, which was part of “investment in the people”, an aspect of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), include sub-programmes such as conditional cash transfer, the home-grown school feeding and job creation. Against this background, the public had expected the government to address the ever widening incidence of poverty in the country as well as provide some form of social safety nets for impoverished members of the society that are in the majority who cannot easily eke a living due to corrupt practices of the past, more so with the country currently labeled as the “poverty capital” of the world as well as having the highest number of “out-of-school-children” world -wide with the northern region leading.
The challenges in addressing these poverty-related issues were enormous but hopes were high with a successful implementation, no one would be left behind in the delivery of the dividends of good governance.
Consequently, the social investment programmes were domiciled in the Office of the Vice President and managed by a Senior Special Assistant (SSA), but subsequently relocated to a newly created Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development following some curious power play that developed within the presidency with the now embattled Sadiya Umar Farouk as pioneer Minister who feasted on what belonged to the poorest of the poor.
The hope of addressing the incidence of poverty in the country appears to have been dashed. Wife of the ex-president, Hajia A’isha Buhari was first to raise an alarm in May 2019 when she alleged that the monies earmarked for the programme were not reaching the targeted beneficiaries. According to her, the social investment programme had failed woefully particularly in the northern states with serious concerns expressed in various circles given that the allegation came from no less a person than the former First Lady of the country.
Today, A’isha Buhari has been vindicated with the stories of criminality, stealing and diversion of billions of naira oozing out from the ministry which necessitated a probe.
The allegation of Madam Buhari represented a serious indictment of the implementation of the entire programme. She wondered how the whopping sum of N500billion yearly budget for the programmes was disbursed, particularly in the 19 Northern states without positive impact showing glaringly. She also criticized the $16million counterpart funding on procurement of mosquito nets and wondered who the beneficiaries were. She went further to question how the N12billion released by the former president for trauma cases across the country was disbursed. These allegations and assertions by A’isha clearly indicated haphazard approach in managing the entire social investment programmes of the Buhari administration by Sadiyya and her co-travelers.
It lent credence to the perception in some quarters that those schemes were mere conduits for government officials and their political collaborators to siphon public funds either for political purposes or self aggrandizement.
Allegations are ripe that the SIP had become a cesspool of corruption, in a former administration that boasted of fighting corruption. Could it be that those are parts of the reasons the country has not fared any better in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index despite the hullaballoo about fighting corruption since the Buhari administration came to power in 2015?
The advent of Covid-19 in 2020 raised increasing interest in the functioning of the social investment programme and some of the new and damaging criticisms came from leadership of the National Assembly that the programme had failed was another damning indictment on the Buhari administration. With the declaration of a total lockdown on some states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the Federal Government, as well as those declared in various states by the governors, there was need to provide adequate palliatives to the poor of the poorest as a necessity. While effort was put-in-place to arrest the spread of the deadly virus throughout the country, the danger of exposing the poor to another more deadly “virus” which is hunger, placed a lot of demand on the authorities to ensure that the poor of the poorest were sustained while the lockdown lasted. That was not done. Instead, the palliatives were hoarded and reserved for political campaigns by Sadiyya and her gang.
The operations of the social investment scheme over the period, in providing palliatives to the people was seriously indicting on the integrity, competence and fairness of the operations of the scheme. The distribution mode was questionable. The spread of the distribution was skewed in favor of certain sections of the country particularly Bauchi State where Sadiyya had a political interest to unseat the serving governor and replaced by her husband in the opposition tent.
The data in circulation on the distribution mode of the palliatives or cash transfers to the poor smacked of gross nepotism and malfeasance. For instance, in several local government areas, opposition party members were denied access to the palliatives with pride. In some of the local governments, a paltry sum of N3,000.00 was doled out to each household for sustenance while the lockdown lasted.
Erstwhile governors were aware of the injustice and corruption involved which could have caused a breach of the peace in most states if not for the quick intervention of some respected players. There is absolute need for a thorough probe of the methodology of disbursement of palliatives in the states and the Home-Grown Feeding as hunger and hardship knows no political party in or out of power.
As customary with government deceits, what is usually captured by the media are stacks of cash on tables and some supposed beneficiaries on queue. It is surprising that a programme that has been in operation since 2016 is still using crude and archaic methods in its operations. A lot of what is going on in the social investment programme smells corruption that should be addressed.
The programme needs to be reviewed for better results. The government needs to redeem its image by carrying out a total overhaul of the programme. There is need for expert advices on evaluation. The personnel involved right from start, even at the highest level should be probed and right-sized. This is an age of the big data. Technology should be deployed in the operation of the programme and so the SIP should ensure that every part of the country is a beneficiary. Except those issues are adequately addressed, people will continue to see the programme as a charade and a means of siphoning public funds by the various political interests to serve their ungodly purposes to the detriment of the poor and the vulnerable. The Renewed Hope Agenda should be seen as a reality.
Betta Edu who promised to probe the stewardship of Sadiyya in Humanitarian Affairs Ministry, was found with soiled hands just within six months of her appointment.
Halima Shehu is the other criminal who could not control her appetite for stealing what belongs to the most wretched on planet earth. Another crook worth a mention is Ai’sha Ahmed, one of the suspended Deputy Governors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Let us not forget the criminal who ‘purchased’ 21million trees ‘distributed’ to 11 states of the federation at a whooping sum of N82.1billion within his less than two years in office as the managing director of National Agency for Greater Green Wall (NAGGW), Dr Yusufu Maina Bukar.
Then another new arrival in the stealing trade is Bello Magaji of the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF). He generated over N2.5billion for the Fund and ‘criminally’, squandered the generated amount without remitting a dime to the national treasury. Part of the swindle was probably the purchase of chieftaincy titles for fraud.
If authorities continue to shrug their shoulders in Abuja in their rampaging impunity, they should note that this is a period of consequences for “thieves of state”. Financial intelligence data miners and money trail experts are now available and they will definitely pursue them even after vacating office. The crooks and rogues systematically destroying our blessed country must be punished. Finally, I doff my hat for the former EFCC boss, Ibrahim Mustapha Magu for the prompt arrest of Yusuf Yakubu John the Yamaltu- Deba born Police Pension thief who smartly voided going to jail and Mr. Fox, the Biu born AbdulRasheed Maina who shamelessly even trained his biological son Faysal in his obnoxious trade of theft.
Maina, arrested by INTERPOL in Niamey, Niger Republic while processing his travel documents to United States to avoid justice, now languishing in Kuje Correctional Centre while Faysal his son was a fugitive in far away United States also extradited to Nigeria and joined his father in Kuje for the marathon sentence. What a family of rogues without shame!
Ahmed Idris, the criminal suspended as Accountant-General of the Federation (AGoF), wearing an innocence face for trust, may be the next high profile criminal to cool his temper in Kuje for the good of Nigeria while several others in the national assembly yet to be apprehended, may be by now battling sleepless nights and on strong prescribed drugs for relief but cannot stop stammering to scam as is habitual already.
Some have shortchanged their constituencies to the point of profuse bleeding to own choice property at parts of the FCT, Shopping plazas and gasoline filing stations in towns and cities, poultry farms in sleepy villages for cheap labor and other scattered holdings from sleaze funds. It’s a matter of time.
But why do we have more of looters, crude thieves, criminals and rogues in all strata of government than honest and sincere civil servants? No political office holder has access to public funds other than a civil servant. No politician steals public funds without the active connivance of a civil servant. So, our civil servants are the brain boxes of stealing public funds and other criminal acts retarding our progress.
They should be stoned!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
