Our attention has been drawn to a false and misleading story published by the Saturday edition of Daily Trust Newspaper concerning recent appointments made by the Honourable Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, on programmes in the Ministry in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s agenda which has the determination to reduce humanitarian crisis and eradicate poverty in the country.
Diligence and proper background checks by Daily Trust would have saved it the burden of publishing a false and unverified report.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Sustainability plans of the World Bank after the end of phase 1 of Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations (YESSO) and Social Development Programme (CSDP) is what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has unfolded in the YESSO and CSDP 2.0(phase 2) through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
At no time were they either completely phased out or ended as Daily Trust tended to suggest. What ended was the first phase of the programme necessitating the take-off of the second phase, tagged 2.0 which the federal government has now taken over and the World Bank has committed further support as part of the sustainability plan.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation under Dr. Edu deemed it fit to put proper structures in place before the smooth take-off of the second phase of the programme to ensure goal delivery and attract even other development partners, hence the recent appointments.
The two Programmes are now wholly owned by the Federal Government under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and their take-off will be funded by the National Social Safety Net office as signed in the sustainability plan of the Programs.
The new strategy to change the programme structure for effective delivery based on the new mandate given to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation birthed the 2.0 CSDP and YESSO programmes.
The legal agreement between Nigeria and the World Bank was not tampered with; phase two of the programs was in line with the agreement as part of the sustainability plans and with the takeover by the Federal Government, President Tinubu’s government can now advocate for their scale up, but a structure must be in place.
Given the federal government’s irrevocable drive to reduce the humanitarian crisis and eradicate poverty in the country, it is important to note that the phase one projects supported by the World Bank alone can not take Nigeria out of its multi-dimensional poverty.
Remarkably, phase one of the programme was successful and impactful which was why the President approved the 2.0 and the need to put structures in place to meet up the standard requirements.
Signed…
Rasheed Olanrewaju Zubair(ANIPR),
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Honourable Minister
30/09/23.
