……says President should go beyond suspension of Betta Edu
The Director Conflict Research Network West Africa (CORN) Dr. Tarila Marclint Ebiede on Wednesday called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to go beyond the suspension of the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and completely overhaul Nigeria’s social protection architecture.
The CORN director who commended the President for promptly suspending the Minister recalled that the research Network had warned the president to be more vigilant on his social protection programmes, which it said was at the risk of being hijacked by politicians.
In a release signed by Dr Ebiede, the CORN Boss asked President Tinubu to digitize the cash transfer programmes and strengthen accountability mechanisms in all social protection programmes being implemented by the federal government and its agencies.
CORN also calls on international development partners and private sector investing in social protection in Nigeria to commit to strengthening social protection institutions in Nigeria by focusing on supporting state institutions with social protection mandates to deliver to the most vulnerable in the country
According to the CORN Director, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu needs "to revisit the 2017 National Social Protection Policy (NSPP), including subsequent revisions in 2021, anchored in the Ministry of National Planning with the objective of ensuring policy coordination and coherence between the different federal government agencies involved in delivering the social protection objectives of the federal government. Specifically, CORN calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to set up a framework within the federal government to ensure that all Federal Government Ministries, agencies and parastatals with a social protection mandate are working in a coherent and coordinated manner towards a shared objective of “promoting social justice, equity and inclusive productive growth” and “addressing poverty, unemployment, social and economic vulnerabilities, inequality, exclusion and other threats to sustainable development”."
Dr Ebiede recalled that the on-going in administration of social protection had been flagged by researchers within the network in its 2023 Conference held in Abuja where researchers at the conference "called on President Tinubu to quickly put in place mechanisms to ensure that the social protection policies of his government are not hijacked by political actors."
He noted that the failure of the ministry to achieve its mandate will undermine peacebuilding and worsen insecurity in the country as the number of vulnerable persons is increasing.
"The allegations against the suspended Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation validate the findings and arguments made by researchers at CORN’s Conference on Social Protection in Fragile and Conflict affected Societies in Nigeria. The need for effective, efficient, and transparent management of resources allocated to the Ministry to achieve its mandate can not be overemphasized.
CORN wish to remind the President, international development partners and the Nigerian civil society that one of the key findings from research presented at its November 2023 Conference on Social Protection in Fragile and Conflict Affected Societies in Nigeria was the political capture and lack of transparency in the implementation of Nigeria’s social protection programmmes, including the national conditional cash transfer, palliatives and other financial support provided by the government"