Humanitarian Affairs Ministry Is a Bastion of Spectacular Corruption: HURIWA Says
Civil Rights Advocacy group on the aegis of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster management as the most notorious cesspool of corruption that lacked transparency and accountability in over 60 Years of the nation’s Independence.
HURIRIWA also alleged that the ministry is a cash guzzling machine and a financial disaster, adding that the minister in charge of the ministry must be made to render proper accounts of how her ministry reportedly claimed to have blown away billions of public fund to feed School children during the three Months of CO VID-19 lockdown when school Children were all at homes in different parts of the Country.
HURIWA said; “This despicable and opaque feeding programme happened despite a groundswell of well informed opposition to the disastrous idea only because the executioners had allegedly
It said; “If we are wrong, the minister should prove us wrong with facts and figures for all to see and judge.”
The Rights group said that Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq should be asked by Nigerians to provide clarification on the claim making waves in the social and online media credited to her as stating that her ministry delivered palliatives to each and every Nigerian just as the Rights group said the minister may face litigation if she refuses to clarify this bogus claim that is attributed to her which to all intents and purposes is not just false but is totally and substantially dubious, deceptive, criminally and deeply annoying.
HURIWA therefore averred that: “It is totally absurd and completely unprovable that Nigeria spends N679m 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% under-five children are malnourished in all parts of Nigeria and especially in majority of the North East of Nigeria.
“HURIWA has seen scientific indications that have emerged that Nigeria might have higher increase in under-five mortality at this critical health emergency time of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, owing to what they termed as gross disruptions in health services and rise in preventable childhood killer diseases like malnutrition just as these scientists stated that already, high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund: “If this is the situation, where then is the justification of the claim that the current Federal Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster management spends huge amount of money on the school feeding programme, currently put at N679m [$1,739,881.82] daily, because clearly from all available indices and practical proofs, many under-five children in the country are still malnourished, with COVID-19 pandemic compounding the problem.”
“HURIWA totally disputes the bogus claims made also by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who, had, in 2018, said the Home Grown School Feeding Programme was aimed at increasing school enrollment and tackling malnutrition in children and affirmed that at current numbers, the Federal Government spends more than $1.8m every day on the National School Feeding Programme”.
HURIWA said the claims of feeding school children and the entire implementation of the SOCIAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME is a fraud because the State of the World’s Children 2019 and the Children, Food and Nutrition Report tells us that in Nigeria, five in 10 children under-five are malnourished (stunted, wasted or overweight); while three in 10 children aged six to 23 months live on poor diets. According to the report, which provides most comprehensive assessment of child malnutrition in all its forms, 13.1 million children in Nigeria are stunted or too short for their age, while 2.9 million are wasted, or too thin for their height.
