The idea behind the creation of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development was a great idea but can't work without a proper database. The money can't get to those that need it because they don't even know them. The ministry was not created to succeed because the structure that can make it succeed is non-existent. They knew this but created the ministry for some personal reasons.
We don't even know how many we are. No data on the vulnerable people. No data on who has a job and who is not. No data on who is poor and who is not, etc. So what data is the ministry working with? Assumption? I always laugh when I read about the statistics of unemployed Nigerians and poor Nigerians. How do you get the statistics of people you don't even know?
If they are in a state to share money, how do they pick the beneficiaries? Toss some dice? It's actually easy to swindle money from the ministry. It is a matter of approving N500m for the vulnerable in state X, then hire as Mr Y as consultant to share the cash to identified vulnerable people. It can be claimed that it was shared in cash and got some people to sign a long list of beneficiaries. No form of identity is required.
The minister and her team were truly in Kogi state. Sadly, the team from the ministry staff consumed 10m naira to share 60m naira for non-existent vulnerable people in Kogi state just before the November 2023 election. I have not been able to identify one person who is a beneficiary of Betta's FG humanitarian gesture in Kogi state. So, who got the N60m?
Meanwhile, there is a need to commend President Tinubu for his readiness to hire and fire. He has continued to prove that he listens. This is a complete departure from the Ex-president Buhari. Once his mind is made up, it doesn't matter how you see. To him, you can wail for the next 4 years, that is your problem. He also prefers to keep his appointees without KPI. He possibly refused to fire after hiring because he did not know who to hire as a replacement.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development should be scrapped till we build a structure that will aid its operation and success. For now, the ministry is created for people who are not vulnerable to swallow the allocation for the ministry like the legendary snake. Till today, we are yet to get the verification of the school kids that Sadiya Farouq fed through "e-feeding".
NIN, BVN, voter card ID number, etc., seem not helpful in the planning for Nigerians for now. It is high time we create a unified database where every Nigerian has a unique ID. The secured Nigerian ID will be required for bank accounts, schools at all levels, workplaces, immigration offices, driver's licenses, hospitals, etc.
Every Nigerian needs to be identifiable by a click. The country can only plan for the citizens if the country is aware that the citizens are existing. We need to be sincere about that. If we don't, we'll keep living at the mercy of the political elite who use us to steal money they don't need.
By
Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD.
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
aaabdelmalik@abu.edu.ng.
Copyright © Amoka 2024
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