The Secretary General of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Willy Ezugwu, has said that the ongoing fraud uncovered in NSIPA and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation are indications that Buhari’s government should be probed by Tinubu, News About Nigeria reports.
Ezugwu stressed that under Buhari’s administration, corruption became an epidemic in the country.
The Secretary maintained that if the current government is committed to fighting corruption, then officials under Buhari’s government must be brought to justice.
Ezugwu said, “If Buhari’s government is not probed, Tinubu should forget about fighting corruption.”
The allegations of fraud in the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation have made many Nigerians call for the probe of the previous administration by President Bola Tinubu.
The suspended NSIPA was founded in 2016 under the Buhari-led administration, exactly a year after he assumed office as Nigeria’s President for the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP).
The NSIP was set up to address issues of poverty and hunger across the country.
NSIPA is functionally subsumed under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, founded by Buhari’s administration – formerly known as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development.
The NSIPA involves programmes like N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP), and Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) to alleviate poverty in the country.
But from all indications, the establishment of the institutions has become counterproductive as noted by Nigerian civil rights activists, claiming that the NSIPA and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation have become synonymous with corruption.
In reaction to the fraud allegations against NSIPA and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Tinubu has suspended the chief executives of both institutions, Betta Edu and Halima Shehu.
Recall that this suspension was much lauded by Nigerians as well as the opposition parties, like Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate.
News About Nigeria reported that Edu has been on suspension pending an investigation into her role in the alleged N585 million fraud, while Shehu was suspended over alleged financial misconduct.
However, Tinubu has taken a step further to suspend the programmes under NSIPA – N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Government Enterprise and Empowerment and Home-Grown School Feeding—for an initial period of six weeks.
Ibrahim Zikirullahi, Executive Director of the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), also asked Tinubu to probe Buhari’s government.
Zikrullahi argued that, going by antecedents, it appears that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was set up as an avenue to loot the national treasury.
