By Alabi Williams

The Auditor-General of the Federation’s report last week, said there was no sufficient evidence that the N33.75 billion allegedly shared to 3.29 million vulnerable households in 2023 reached the beneficiaries. The details are contained in the report of the Auditor General on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weakness in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government. It reviewed transactions at the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) for the 2023 financial year.

According to reports, the audit raised eight queries, involving billions of naira and identified weaknesses in the office’s internal control system. It said electronic transfers totalling N33.75 billion were made to 3,259 households and beneficiaries supposedly drawn from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary across 35 states in 2023. But the paid vouchers did not contain full details of the beneficiaries. Efforts by auditors to ascertain payment records were obstructed and denied by account staff.

The report suggested the possibility that public funds were lost or payments were done to ineligible or fictitious persons. It suggested that the AGF did not receive the required cooperation from the management of the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO). However, in their defence, NCTO said the audit query does not mean money was stolen or lost. Now, there are calls for investigations.

That development brings to mind the story of Beta Edu, the sacked Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (August 2023-January 2024). Leaked memos showed Edu instructed the Accountant General of the Federation at the time, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer N585 millions of funds meant for vulnerable Nigerians into a private UBA account belonging to one Oniyelu Bridget, said to be a project accountant.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), investigated Edu’s case and confirmed a trail of disbursements from Oniyelu’s account into other accounts in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Lagos and Ogun. Some principal officers of this government (colleagues of Edu) were allegedly linked to the disbursements. But the EFCC has been silent on the details. The Commission is yet to charge Edu and those who participated in the alleged crime.

Today, Edu has returned as the chief woman campaigner for President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election. She is back on the turf that gave her visibility and access. She is repackaged and behold all things for her are brand new. Previous allegations are forgotten. Some said, because she had not been prosecuted.

That’s not even the point. The concern is that funds appropriated in the name of vulnerable Nigerians end up more in private pockets, than in the wretched pockets of poor Nigerians. Monies that were supposed to be paid directly into beneficiary accounts are diverted elsewhere.

It turned out that Edu’s case was just a tip of the iceberg, regarding the monumental corruption in the Humanitarian Ministry. The EFCC discovered a larger scam that involved a former minister and a trail of accomplices.

The All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government of Muhammadu Buhari, had in 2016 launched an elaborate social investment programme to alleviate poverty and hunger. At the time 62.6 per cent of Nigerians were said to be poor. The programmes including: N-Power, to train 1.5 million youths in various skills and pay them N30,000 stipend for two years. Between 2016 and 2019, a total of N890 billion was allegedly spent on N-Power.

There was the Conditional Cash Transfer of N5,000 to two million poorest households, which gulped N246 billion by 2022. There were Market-Moni, Trader-Moni and Trader-Farmer, that were to give soft credit to over one million small businesses. Not to forget School Feeding for 10 million pupils to be served 25 million meals, that gulped of N200.9 billion by 2022.

The EFCC revealed that the sum of N37.1 billion belonging to the Ministry were laundered. Former Minister Sadiya Umar-Sadiq and Halima Shehu, who was the Chief Executive of the NSIPA were fingered. Sadiya was minister between 2019 and 2023. She alone couldn’t have been responsible for the alleged disappearance of that whopping sum.

The EFCC found that the said sum was laundered through a contractor, James Okwete. The trail involved malpractices in the school feeding programme and the N-Power and cash transfers. Of the N37.1 billion, the EFCC said N30 billion was laundered under Umar-Sadiq. So, it suggests that before her appointment in 2019, N7.1 billion had been laundered as well.

The EFCC alleged that apart from the laundered sum, N44.8 billion was disbursed suspiciously, including N44 billion from the NSIPA account in five days in December 2023. The sum was transferred to individual accounts and companies. Shehu claimed she wanted to prevent the funds from being looted by certain forces.

So far, the EFCC had announced that it recovered about N39.8 billion of the N44.8 billion without disclosing the details. Both Umar-Sadiq and Shehu were charged to court. They’re presently on sick leave in Saudi Arabia. There are questions lingering on how the funds were recovered: was it a plea bargain; what happens to the balance and why are identities being concealed?

The stronger point is: as far as social investment programmes are concerned, poor Nigerians have been very unlucky in the hands of the APC. Government applies for credit from the World Bank in the name of poor people, but rich people steal them. Over 1.4 million N-Power enrollees are owed N81 billion backlog in unpaid stipends as at today.

After that, the Tinubu government suspended humanitarian activities for six weeks, to clean up the mess. A special Presidential Panel was put together to do a comprehensive review and audit of policy guidelines and financial payments, under former Finance Minister, Wale Edun. Government said it would do “total re-engineering of the financial architecture” with detailed modification that will be difficult for operators to abuse. Stories!

In the borrowing plan of Buhari’s government 2016-2020, a $1.6 billion was earmarked for social investments, sourced from the World Bank, AFDB, China Exim Bank and others. Another $800 billion was loaned from the World Bank in May 2023, to alleviate poverty. The loan is to be repaid in 25 years. When Buhari’s tenure expired, he left massive foreign loans that were borrowed to alleviate poverty. He left Nigerians poorer.

The $800 million NSIP loan secured under Buhari arrived in good time for disbursement under President Tinubu. The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Bernard Doro, claimed 9.2 million Nigerians benefitted from it in over two years, amounting to N688 billion. But we’re not likely to see the evidence.

After President Tinubu imposed his petrol tax (subsidy removal), he promised to alleviate the expected hardship. He had earlier promised in his campaign document to make Nigerians prosperous. The promises have been repeated over and again, including the October 1st deadline he announced to crash transport fares.

In July 2026, President Tinubu launched five social security programmes valued at $3.05 billion. The aim, he said, is to reduce poverty, strengthen community resilience and improve access to healthcare and education. Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minster of the Economy unveiled the package on behalf of the President.

According to the President, the programmes include: $1.25 billion for the Nigeria Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus Additional Financing (NG-CARES AF); $300 million Solutions for Internally Displaced and Host Communities (SOLID); the $1.5 billion Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE), comprising HOPE-Gov, HOPE Primary Healthcare (PHC) and HOPE-Education. These are designed to translate economic gains into improved standards for citizens between 2026-2030.

Regarding SOLID, the impression is that Nigeria would perpetually be funding IDPs and appeasing communities hosting IDPs. Have IDPs come to stay, with no plans to address the reasons for their displacement and return them to their ancestral homelands? Most pathetic is the fact that government is waiting on the World Bank and other creditors to raise funds to address humanitarian crisis and reduce poverty.

Then on August 26, 2026, the wife of President Tinubu, Senator Oluremi, launched another $1 billion Renewed Hope Social Protection Programme to move vulnerable Nigerians from temporary palliatives to long-term economic self-reliance. This package is targeting to lift 7.6 million persons out of multi-dimensional poverty.

The breakdown consists of Hope-SP for household prosperity and empowerment social protection; the OHOPRS: The One-Humanitarian-One Poverty Response System, to coordinate relief and poverty reduction efforts into a single framework. Another is the Emergency Shock-Responsive Cash Transfer and the Production of First Magazine, a bulletin to document the experiences and impact of poverty alleviation on beneficiaries. How did we get here?

Minister Doro said the new initiative is to address the fragmentation and duplication of the multiple and uncoordinated social investment programmes into sustainable growth. At least, the government agreed there are nearly uncountable poverty alleviation programmes running aimlessly, without accountability.

Nothing was said of where the funding for this $1 billion project is coming from. But of course, the World Bank, the European Union and other development partners attended the event and applauded it.

On the sidelines, the wife of Mr President has different poverty reducing projects all over the place. She recently flagged off the National Community Food Bank Programme to run nationwide and across geo-political zones, as part of the Renewed Hope Initiative of the Federal Government. They said it is government’s sustainable response to food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. They’re targeting children under six, pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and other vulnerable groups (widows and the elderly) The idea is to distribute essential food commodities in the grassroots. Where is the funding coming from? And who decides the beneficiaries?

There is also the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme targeting 1,000 economically active individuals in each of the 8,809 Wards in the country. The goal is to create jobs, improve food security and reduce poverty at the local level.

It is worrisome that there is no independent legislature to interrogate these borrowings and the leakages. States run their own dubious poverty reduction projects. The lawmakers are doing theirs. The City Boys are doing theirs. In summary, monies are borrowed to alleviate poverty, but are either stolen or diverted into vote-buying schemes.

Meanwhile, poverty deepens!