In the last few days, the name of Betta Edu, the suspended minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation has been all over Nigerian news sites over the transfer of public funds into a private account.
While there has been many lies and narratives to distort and mislead the public, essentially on the basis of politics and acts of enemies within, it is fair to state the issues as they are.
In a letter allegedly signed by the minister and titled: “Mandate for payment of Grant for vulnerable Groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Lagos and Ogun States respectively”, Edu was said to have instructed the accountant-general to transfer the sum N585, 198,500.00 into a personal account of one Oniyelu Bridget Mojisola, who happens to be the project accountant of the programme.
Many have criticised Edu while many others have defended her knowing the kind of person she is.
No doubt, she is zealous and have executed many poverty alleviation projects and programmes to uplift the poor with a passion to serve and fulfil the renewed hope Mantra of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Little wonder she has won accolades and adjudged one of the best performing ministers of the present government. (That is a talk for another day).
From this allegation, it is clear enough that Dr. Betta Edu is not being accused of squandering, stealing or “looting” public funds, rather, the whole outcry is that she approved the sending of the project money meant for the vulnerable to a private account which has since been found out to belong to the project accountant.
While a human rights lawyer and social critic, Barrister Frank Tietie says, transferring money from government accounts into bank accounts of project accountants in the public service is a normal practice which has been on for long, due to the introduction of the Treasury Savings Account, TSA in Nigeria, it would interest you to know that many federal government agencies, paraststals and ministries are guilty of this same act.
In Dr Edu’s case as gathered from the ministry, the option became necessary because the Grant for Vulnerable Group Project have a cash-in-hand Component especially for rural settlers and vulnerable people in hinterland land without bank accounts unlike in the Conditional Cash Transfers Programmes where individuals enrolled in the National Social Register(NSR) have existing bank accounts and have been verified in one way or the other before payment directly from CBN.
Would it not be wrong then to throw away the dirty water and the baby, by branding the genuine efforts and zeal to offer succour to the millions of vulnerable Nigerians by eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks in the process against the ‘payment into the account of the project’s accountant ;which is seen as the sin?
So far, there has been no issue of missing money! Only allegation of paying into a private account.
While it is normal to step aside, I would want to implore President Bola Tinubu, to reconsider Dr Betta Edu after the probe if she is not found guilty. Afterall, we can not continue to sacrifice our good hands on the alter of politics and pay good with evil.
Before I go, I would want to ask these salient questions. In the on-going investigations, one can not put aside the interests of those who leaked such internal document into the public. So, what are their interests? Also, who are the people responsible for dishing out falsehood and misinformation to outrightly tarnish the image of Dr. Betta Edu? And lastly, is any money missing from the coffers of the ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation under Dr Betta Edu?
-Henry Babajide-Green writes in from Lagos State
