Nigerians have expressed outrage at the revelation by a US congressman that United States Aid For International Development (USAID) under the Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations has funded terrorist organisations like Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Khorasan, among others.
Scott Perry, a United States Congressman representing Pennsylvania, made this disclosure at the inaugural hearing of the Sub-committee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on Thursday, after President Donald Trump shut down the agency accusing it of massive corruption.
Speaking during a session titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,” Perry accused USAID of providing $136 million for building 120 schools in Pakistan, stressing that there was “zero evidence” of the construction of the schools.
According to Perry: “Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money, your money, $697 million annually, plus the shipments of cash funds in Madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Khorasan, terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding.
“You are funding terrorism, and it’s coming through USAID. And it’s not just Afghanistan, because Pakistan’s right next door.
“Somebody else got the money. You are paying for terrorism. This has got to end.”
Speaking to LEADERSHIP on Friday, an international affairs analyst and journalist, Dr. Austin Maho, said although it was outrageous, there has always been suspicion about covert activities directed to destabilise Nigeria and other third-world countries even as he called for a thorough probe to ascertain the true situation.
He said that in the past, many high ranking US officials have at one time or the other accused the US of sponsoring ISIS and the attendant political distabilisation of the Middle East and Africa, noting that evidence abound on the internet.
He said, however, the US sponsorship of Boko Haram was a different ball game and strikes at the very heart of Nigeria’s security, which needed further probe.
“There have been serious questions in the past as to why the Nigerian army has not been able to completely wipe out Boko Haram. Who funds them and supplies them weapons? What is behind their surviving power in almost two decades of war? The revelation may just be the answer to these questions.
“However I think the statement of one congressman, as weighty as it is, is not enough for us to jump into conclusion. We need collaboration, we need hard evidence. The Nigerian government should launch a probe into this matter to get to the bottom of it, because it concerns our national security. One Congressman saying it isn’t quite enough for me. There should be corroboration,” he added.
Also speaking to LEADERSHIP on Friday, Professor Yusuf Zoaka of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Abuja, said the allegation by the US lawmaker was a serious and controversial claim that required careful scrutiny.
He stressed that USAID is a federal agency primarily focused on providing humanitarian aid, economic development, and disaster relief globally. Its mission was to promote peace and stability, making the allegation of funding terrorism highly contradictory to its stated objectives.
The University don, however, pointed out that as of now, there was no publicly available credible evidence to support the claim that USAID was funding Boko Haram or any other terrorist organisation, adding that such allegations demanded thorough investigation and substantiation before being accepted as a fact.
He said further that the USAID often worked in conflict zones to address the root causes of extremism, such as poverty, lack of education, and unemployment. Its programs were designed to undermine the appeal of terrorist groups like Boko Haram, not support them.
He noted that the allegation could stem from misunderstandings about how aid was distributed in conflict zones. “In some cases, aid resources may inadvertently fall into the hands of malicious actors due to the complex nature of these environments, but this is not the same as intentional funding.
“Such allegations, if substantiated, could harm USAID’s reputation and undermine its ability to carry out its humanitarian
“It should, however, be said that the allegations had tainted the work of USAID and its credibility. We should not forget that recently the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) had complained that most of the terrorists killed or arrested were found to be in possession of US Dollars.
“This certainly needs to be properly investigated to ascertain the veracity of the allegations. ‘There is no smoke without fire’ if we consider the predictions of the USA government that Nigeria will collapse by 2015,” he said.
At the time of filing this report on Friday, the United States Embassy in Abuja was yet to respond to inquiries sent to it for a possible reaction to this disclosure.
In a related development, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ acting spokesman, Kimiebi Ebienfa, was yet to issue a reaction of the Ministry on the vexed issue at the time of filing this report on Friday.
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