Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management as a cesspool of corruption, lacking in transparency and accountability.
Alleging that the ministry was a cash guzzling machine and financial disaster, the pro-democracy non-governmental organisation insisted that the minister in charge must be made to explain how she blew billions of naira ‘feeding pupils’ during the three months lockdown, when the children were at their homes in different parts of the country.
In a statement by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, yesterday in Abuja, the group said the minister, Sadiya Farouq, should be asked by Nigerians to provide clarification on the claim that her ministry delivered palliatives to each and every Nigerian.
“This despicable and opaque feeding programme happened despite a groundswell of well-informed opposition to the disastrous idea, only because the executioners had allegedly choreographed the primitive ways of siphoning public fund in the guise of feeding ghost school children.
“The minister should prove us wrong, if she can, with facts and figures for all to see and judge,” it said.
The group argued that the minister might face litigation if she refused to clarify the deeply annoying bogus claim attributed to her.
HURIWA said, “It is totally absurd and completely unprovable that Nigeria spends N679 million daily to feed school children. This political and morally-tainted bogus claim is one of the most insensitive lies to have been told by any politician because this is clearly false, since experts have told us with abundant scientifically empirical evidence that 50 per cent under-five children are malnourished in all parts of Nigeria, especially in majority of the North East of Nigeria.”
It, however, challenged the minister to a public debate on Wednesday, August 5, to tell Nigerians the amount she spent feeding school children during the lockdown.
SIMILARLY, Concerned Nigerians has condemned the Federal Government’s plan to construct a 27.3km perimeter fence round University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) at a whopping N64 billion.
This translates to N2.2 billion per kilometre.
In a statement yesterday, the group argued that the estimated 27.3km fence round the university was over-bloated and overtly outrageous.
The convener, Deji Adeyanju, also condemned the government’s rehabilitation and re-integration programme for Boko Haram fighters, describing the scheme as fraudulent and ill-informed.
“We approached an expert, a civil engineer, who told us that he had actually constructed a fence that was more than two kilometres, a block wall fence at three metres high with reinforced concrete double columns at every five metres and single columns at every three metres, that did not cost more than N15 million per kilometre. This includes the barb wire fencing and angle irons. He added that even with precast concrete and blast ballistics rating, it would not exceed N60 million per kilometre.”
According to him, even the Abacha regime that Nigerians think was the most corrupt is nothing compared to the monumental fraud that is being witnessed under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The project, which is valued at N64 billion according to the chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in UNIMAID, Dr. Dani Mamman, is to stop the terrorists who had been penetrating the north-east part of the campus.
