Poverty: Northern CSOs Want Social Intervention Programmes Probed

Conference of Northern States Civil Society Networks (CNSCSN) has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) asking it to investigate the implementation of the federal government Social Intervention Programmes (SIPs) across the country.

In a letter addressed to the chairman of the EFCC, Abdulraheed Bawa and signed by the president, Kano Civil Society Forum, Kano State, Ambassador Ibrahim A. Waiya and 19 others, they said that they are seriously disturbed by the recent publication of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) tagged Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey wherein, Northern states were reported to have the worst indices.

“This is of great concern considering the huge investment made by the federal government through Social Investment Programmes where hundreds of thousands of citizens were supposedly reported to have received one form of economic support or the other. Unfortunately, the recent publication by the NBS indicated otherwise, as it does not translate to an improvement or betterment of life for the poor people in Nigeria particularly in the Northern region. 63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multi -dimensionally poor, 65% of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35% (nearly 47 million) live in the South.

“According to the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper report of January 14th 2022, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq said the Federal Government of Nigeria spends the sum of One Billion Dollars on National Social Investment Programmes annually since 2016.

“As a network of civil society representing over three thousand individual organizations across the Nineteen Northern States and FCT, it is our belief that dismissing the Managing Director for NIRSAL, is not enough by now, as discreet investigation should be conducted to unravel the alleged misappropriation of public funds . We however, have conducted preliminary investigation through our state member organizations, and the findings indicated possible tendency of irregularities in the application of the funds across the states. The interventions that were meant for the poor in most cases ended up being diverted to unintended and undeserving beneficiaries,” the group added.

The group said that it is against this background that they wrote to the EFCC for thorough investigation of the SIPs. It said the findings of EFCC investigation should be published to reveal the names of the beneficiaries and the total amount disbursed from 2016 to date, as well as the government agency responsible for the implementation of each programme. It said that it is equally pertinent that, any person or group of persons found culpable in any way should be made to face the wrath of the law, no matter his or her social standing.

“The components of the Special Intervention Programmes shall include but not limited to the following: Central Bank of Nigeria Economic Stimulus Interventions, notably known as, Anchor Borrowers Scheme. National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). Government Enterprises and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), N- Power Job Creation Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme, Covid 19 Special intervention Funds Programmes, NIRSAL Microfinance Loans Scheme, SMEDAN Cash Transfer Interventions, NDE Special Public Works Programme, National Housing Funds, FERMA Projects, Federal Government Ecological Funds to States, NALDA Programmes (Presidency) and BESDA Programmes in States especially the matching grant, ” the group added.