SERAP Urges Buhari to Probe Spending on Social Intervention Programmes

Udora Orizu in Abuja

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to promptly set up a presidential panel of enquiry to thoroughly, effectively and transparently investigate spending on all social safety-nets and poverty alleviation programmes and projects executed between 2015 and 2022.

SERAP also urged the president to ensure the findings of any such investigation are widely published and suspected perpetrators of corruption, and mismanagement of public funds meant to take care of the poor should face prosecution as appropriate.

A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that 133 million Nigerians are poor despite the government reportedly spending N500 billion yearly on ‘social investment programmes.’ Half of all poor people in the country are children.

In the letter dated 19 November 2022 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said the report suggests a grave violation of the public trust, and the lack of political will to genuinely address poverty, and uphold your government’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.

The letter, copied to Mr. Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, read in part: “These grim revelations by the NBS show the failure to fulfil your oft-repeated promise to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, and that no one will be left behind.”

 “The report that 133 million Nigerians are poor suggests corruption and mismanagement in the spending of trillion of naira on social safety-nets and poverty alleviation programmes, including the reported disbursement of over $700 million from the repatriated Abacha looted funds to these programmes.

“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest. Successive governments have systematically neglected social and economic rights, and failed to address severe poverty and inequality in the country. Part of the problem is the failure by your government to promote the legal recognition of economic and social rights in the Nigerian Constitution, which would allow people living in poverty to seek redress for violations of their human rights.”