Why Social Investment Programmes Must Be Scrapped — Legal Practitioner, Inibehe Effiong

A legal practitioner, Inibehe Effiong, has urged the Federal Government to abolish the N-Power and other social intervention programs administered by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

Effiong made this call as a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, offering his perspective on the controversy involving the suspended minister, Betta Edu, who faces allegations of financial misconduct.

Effiong argues that the social intervention programs implemented under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs have failed to lift impoverished Nigerians out of poverty effectively.

“We have been hearing of N-Power over the years. We have now seen that the government is saying that they want to spend N3 billion to audit the social register, which is scandalous. What are you spending N3 billion to audit? It’s embarrassing, some of the things we hear in this country.

“So, I am saying that these social intervention schemes or programmes should be scrapped. It has not altered the poverty ratio in the country, it has not had any effect on inflation, it does not improve the purchasing power of the Nigerian people, let us scrap it completely,” Effiong said.

Additionally, the lawyer called on the government to disclose the names of beneficiaries of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) publicly as a measure to ensure transparency and accountability.

He said that if the government cannot produce the people who have benefitted from these programmes, there is no basis to recall the suspended minister whom many of her supporters are now calling for her recall.

“I am putting a challenge today, and I hope the EFCC will answer this question because it is not enough to say let us recall her. Who are the beneficiaries? And I am biased a bit because my own state is mentioned, that millions were going to go to some indigent people in Akwa Ibom, some to Cross River, Lagos and Ogun states.

“Who are those going to be the final beneficiaries of this money? If at the end of the investigation the EFCC cannot answer this question with the identities of these persons, their accounts, their residences, there will be no basis to recall her (Edu),” he said.

Recall that Naija News reported that President Bola Tinubu has suspended Betta Edu, along with the Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu, on allegations of corruption.

This suspension extends to all programs administered by the Agency, including the N-Power Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, and Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

Edu, her predecessor Sadiya Umar-Farouq, and Shehu are currently under investigation by anti-graft agencies for the alleged embezzlement of billions in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.