Npower News: Absence of Betta Edu Escalating Poverty in Nigeria: Kayode Arimoro

According to Npower News, a human rights activists based in the United States of America, Kayode Arimoro, says the absence of Betta Edu, the suspended minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, is escalating the poverty situation in Nigeria.

Mr Kayode Arimoro, a civil rights activists who also doubles as the founder of the Sustainable National Movement (SNM), said this when he addressed journalists in Abuja on Monday 29th April 2024.

According to Npower News, Mr Kayode Arimoro said that millions of vulnerable Nigerian youths who depend on the ministry for Humanitarian Affairs and its programmes which includes Npower to survive were languishing in abject poverty since the suspension of the minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Betta Edu.

Mr Kayode Arimoro said that the Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could have conducted its investigation without the suspension of the minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Betta Edu or halting the ministry’s poverty alleviation programmes especially Npower.

“Getting the ministry’s working right would have solved Nigeria’s problems by over 70 per cent, with 133 million people living below poverty line.

“And an additional 10 million people thrown into poverty between January and April 2024 according to World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria: April 2024.

“That was the least deliverable that Edu promised to deliver, and she was all hands on deck from her first day in office,” Mr Kayode Arimoro said.

According to Npower News, Mr Kayode Arimoro said that the minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation travelled across the entire Federation to visit the very poorest at the remotest areas in the country immediately she was appointed.

“Edu had been managing Internally Displaced Persons, disabled and the vulnerable at large.

“It’s little wonder that by the end of December 2023, an international Paper, The Guardian UK, and several organisations rated her as the Best Minister in 2023 after months of sterling performance.

“The young minister was everywhere, both within and outside the country, to campaign with President Bola Tinubu during the elections.

“She believes strongly in Tinubu’s eight-point agenda targeted at reducing poverty and fighting corruption, among other points,” Mr Kayode Arimoro said.

Mr Kayode Arimoro added: “She was diligent enough to expose a N44.8 billion unapproved transfer in December 2023 by the National Social Investment Programme, which is under the supervision of her ministry.

“The President took a positive step in line with his determination to fight corruption by suspending the government official (National Coordinator) involved.

“Little did he know that the large network of prospective beneficiaries from that unapproved transfer, which is part of systemic corruption, would come fighting back with false propaganda to remove the minister at all costs and tarnish her image.”

Mr Kayode Arimoro pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reinstate the suspended minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu so her good work could continue.

Betta Edu was suspended by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in January over alleged misappropriation of public funds.

Source: https://gazettengr.com/absence-of-humanitarian-minister-aggravating-poverty-in-nigeria-activist/