By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
A United States-based civil rights activist, Mr Kayode Arimoro, has urged President Bola Tinubu to recall the sacked Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, while her investigation by the Economic and Financial Commission continues
He argued that the removal of Edu was worsening the poverty situation in the country.
Arimoro, who is the founder of the Sustainable National Movement, stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday.
He said millions of vulnerable Nigerians who replied on the ministry and its programmes to survive were currently languishing in abject poverty since Edu was removed and her activities suspended.
Arimoro insisted that the Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), could still have been allowed to conduct its investigation, without removing Edu or stopping her Ministry’s poverty alleviation programmes.
He said, “Getting the ministry’s working right would have solved Nigeria’s problems by over 70 per cent, with 133 million people living below the poverty line and an additional 10 million people thrown into poverty between January and April 2024 according to World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria: April 2024.
“That was the least deliverable. Edu promised to deliver, and she was all hands on deck from her first day in office.”
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He said Edu had travelled across the country to visit the very poorest at the remotest areas in the country immediately after she was appointed.
He said, “Edu had been managing Internally Displaced Persons, Disable and the Vulnerable at large. The corrupt system orchestrated ways to force her out of office. Little wonder that by the end of December 2023, an international Paper the Guardian UK, and several organisations rated her as the Best Minister in 2023 after months of sterling performance.
“The Young Minister was everywhere both within and outside the country to campaign with President Bola Tinubu during the elections. She believes strongly in Tinubu’s eight-point agenda targeted at reducing poverty and fighting corruption, among other points.
“She was diligent enough to expose a N44.8bn unapproved transfer in December 2023 by the National Social Investment Programme which is under the supervision of her Ministry.
“The President l took a positive step in line with his determination to fight corruption by suspending the Government official (National Coordinator) involved.
“Little did he know that the large network of prospective beneficiaries from that unapproved transfer which is part of a systemic corruption will come fighting back with false propaganda to remove the Minister at all costs and tarnish her image.
“How else can we explain the suspension of someone who exposed the fraud that occurred in a ministry?
“N44.8bn was transferred without approvals from the President, Federal Executive Council, or even the knowledge of the Minister.
“Betta Edu queries this action, and off she goes suspended within seven days! How does that make any sense?
“It is difficult to quantify the untold hardship that sometimes irreversible, vulnerable people across Nigeria must have gone through and are still going through because of this action of allowing the plans of the corrupt people to prevail
“Of all the eight-point agenda the President campaigned on, weeding out corruption, Poverty alleviation, women and youth empowerment were the core. Have we asked ourselves, how has the continuous suspension of the best-performing Minister, as per the Guardian UK in 2023, correlated with this agenda?
“While the President intends to suspend the minister so that the system can be investigated, the period concerning the suspended minister was barely four months. Given that all the projects she achieved were legally genuine with due approvals and the said transfer of N587m which she wrote officially to the Accountant General and payments were made from the accountant general office.
“Given that she followed a laid down regulation from Chapter 14 section (iii) of the Federal Government Financial regulations. The Section stated clearly that “in the disbursement of funds for non-personal advance for project/special programmes, the leader of the project/special programmes shall be the accounting officer.”
Arimoro, therefore, urged Tinubu to reinstate Edu immediately and let her good work continue.
