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•Minister vows to reach out to 15m indigent households •Edu’s remarks political –NNPP •Palliatives won’t work – HURIWA
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, seems determined to effect the mandate of President Bola Tinubu to bing millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
Tinubu, in one of his outings, said the poor should be allowed to breathe and that they should not be suffocated.
To this end, Edu said for a start, she would reach out to 15 million indigent households through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), on her assumption of office.
The CCT was one of the schemes initiated by the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, in which N118,142 billion was claimed to have been disbursed. But many argued that it did not help in reducing the economic distress of Nigerians.
The the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had reported that the country has about 133 million poor people. This figure has been disputed by experts, including Edu who pegged the figure at 136 million.
Regardless of the contentious figure, she said she he would not be keen on brandishing data for political gains, but that she would put out verifiable data that would reflect the reality through poverty alleviation, especially for rural dwellers.
Since the mandate needed a collaborative endeavour, she told the directors and heads of departments to roll up their sleeves and put on their thinking caps. She sternly warned that she would not entertain incompetence and corruption.
Edu said part of her plans would be to review the activities of the previous administration, bring in the private sector for experts to contribute their quota and set up a trust fund for emergency response.
Edu said: “I am happy to meet all of you here today. And I bring you all the goodwill from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“He has an agenda and the agenda is simple: Renew the hopes of Nigerians. There is a whole lot of work to be done.
“I have taken my time over a few days to go through some data. So, I have seen that we have about 136 million poor Nigerians.
“Let us assume, in all honesty, that the data we have is correct, that we have 200 million Nigerians, which I think we are more than that. The 136 million poor people is alarming and is completely unacceptable.
“There is a reason the ministry was renamed to refocus us on the plan of lifting Nigerians out of poverty. We need to bring smiles back to the faces of Nigerians.
“And I am not seeing data, I am not seeing numbers. I am referring to people. At all costs, Nigerians must smile again. We have a huge task to deliver.
“We must get down to every single spot in this country and reach those who are underserved. Those who are poor, those who need a renewed hope; we are not going to play games. We are going to increase our efforts.
“We are going to be very transparent and we are going to be very accountable to Nigerians. We are going to speak out and tell them what it is we are doing.
“It is no secret business. If we spend N1 or N1 billion, they must feel the results of that expenditure.
“I want to plead with you, I am a team player. But I push really hard. We have a huge job to do. And so, all hands must be on deck.
“People are watching. The minutes are counting already. Nigerians are waiting. I want to beg us all to drop any baggage that will not allow us to do the job the way we should do it.
“I want to plead with us to fasten our seatbelts because we will be flying at the speed of light. I do not know if it is good for you, but it is good for the President and it is good for Nigerians that a younger person is here.
“We need energy, we need innovation, we need speed to reach 136 million people. As a matter of urgency, like the permanent secretary has said, we need to fix the cracks in the system, any failure at all in the system, any lapses in the system, whether it is in the health sector or in the agric sector or anywhere.
“They all end up as humanitarian crisis and, of course, it leads to a cycle of poverty. President Tinubu will be bringing on board people to the centre and most successful programmes in the history of poverty alleviation anywhere in the world.”
But some experts in community development said the minister should act gingerly and study the poverty index in order avert similar mistakes in which those who were in need did not get help.
In his submission, the National Publicity Secretary of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Major Agbo, argued that the minister’s remarks were political and would not assuage the socio-economic pangs of citizens.
Agbo said it was unfortunate that Nigerians would accept hook, line and sinker the assurances of government functionaries.
He said: “When they come, they always present themselves as people who have solutions to our difficulties. And we will always console ourselves with this understanding that we need to give them a chance.
“This is exactly what they are trying to do again by saying we should give them a chance to deal with this and all of that.
“Remember what happened during the last government. This same ministry gave us humongous sums of money as what was spent on the needy.
“On investigation, we discovered that nothing got to the needy. And because of patriotism, we always say it is a new government, let us give her a chance and see what will happen.
“The problem we have always had in dealing with this kind of issue is the mere absence of database. The question is: how do you know who the poor is in this country? How many are they and where are they?
“And how do you locate them to be able to provide all of these to them? So, until we have reliable data, we will continue to dance around the same circle. But what I have always said is that we should give them a chance.
“We can only advise her on how she can succeed. First is for her to look at the reliability of the database. And from there, she should be able to know where these poor people are.
“How many are they? What do they need? And what should get to them and put in place strategies to ensure that what needs to get to them gets to them.”
According to him, palliative distribution was a waste of resources that would not eradicate poverty because of how limited the items are.
“I do not believe in palliatives distribution. That is a temporary thing. We are looking for permanent solutions to solve.
“When you give me a bag of rice today and it finishes after five days, have you helped me? I am back to where you met me before you gave me the bag of rice.
“We should be looking at long term measures to mitigate our challenges as a country, and not this short thing that they do.
“So, in a way, I look at what they are trying to do as just a political gimmicks and to make the people cool when they know that they are making mistakes.”
Also, the National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Emmanuel Onwubiko, like Agbo, expressed doubt over the effectiveness of palliative distribution.
Onwubiko advised that the minister should tone down media showmanship and be circumspect because, according to him, poverty alleviation is a herculean task to deal with.
He said: “All these propaganda and media showmanship is not very helpful. In the area of humanitarian issues, I do not know if her office covers disaster management. If it does and even if it does not, the challenge of battling the menace of poverty in Nigeria is a big deal.
“It is not something that a noisemaker should be interested in. It is a serious issue because more than half of the country are actually poor.
“And you have somebody who is given the job of reducing poverty and all we are hearing is just media noise.
“All the ministers need to settle down and get their ass together and device a very transparent and accountable mechanism of doing whatever they want to do.
“I think eradicating poverty cannot be attained by sharing money. The most important thing is for the government to teach skills.
“You do not give them fish, you teach them how to fish. That is why I am not particularly impressed with the palliatives the government has introduced.”
