….insists ministry must produce details of beneficiaries
By Haruna Salami
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has again come under the hammer of the Senate over Federal Government’s intervention programmes, describing the implementation as nullity.
The Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq was summoned to appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on uneven disbursement of loans/grants interventions of six geo-political regions by Nigeria’s development banks.
Before the minister was given the floor to make her presentation to the committee, the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East)said “the rate at which Nigerians are going down into poverty is alarming, despite heavy investment in National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).
The minister in her presentation said some of the intervention programmes of government implented by her ministry include “End Power, National School Feeding programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment programme.
She said all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are beneficiaries of the programmes since inauguration of the programme in 2016.
However, the senators were not impressed. Senators Matthew Urhoghide (Edo South), Uche Ekwunife (Anambra Central) and Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo Central) all picked holes in her presentation since it did not include details of beneficiaries: their names, phone numbers, amount, BVN, etc.
Senator Ayo Akinyelure put it more succinctly when he described it as a “fine programme, but the implementation is a nullity”.
The Chairman, Sani Musa, who agreed with his colleagues said the Director of NSIP, Dr. Umar Bindir “rolled out data as a doctor”, but their constituents don’t understand data, adding that “figures don’t mean anything to Nigerians if names, phone numbers, account numbers of the beneficiaries are not attached”.
The Committee therefore resolved that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs submit details of all beneficiaries, including their loan recovery plan.
