‘It’s going to be a field operation all through for me – Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Edu Rolls Out Work Plan

Dr. Betta Edu, the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty eradication, has declared that as she travels to announce her work plan, it won’t be ministry business as usual.

Edu stated that she will not participate in any state or Abuja-related affairs because she is going directly to the grassroots, where poverty is more acute.

The minister claimed that given the task at hand, she wouldn’t often be found at her Abuja office because it would be a field operation from beginning to end for her.

Edu stated that extreme poverty was not in Abuja but rather at the bottom of the food chain in local government areas across the nation during a two-day visit to Maiduguri, Borno State. Gistlover gathered.

She said, “So, it’s going to be a field operation all through for me. I will basically not be found in my office because every day, I will be on the field, reaching out to the poorest of the poor. We don’t want to do the Abuja business.

“We don’t want to do the state business; we want to drop it down all the way to local government so that individuals that are poor can be easily identified and easily supported.”

Speaking further, the minister said humanitarian hubs would be set up in all the 774 local government areas in Nigeria to relieve the pains of Nigerians through various projects.

She submitted that “We’ll begin an expanded upscale social safety net programme which will be reaching out to at least 15 million households in Nigeria.

“We are putting conditions to it; these are funds to start up businesses, these are funds that put you back on track, so it is not government giveaways as usual.”

She also warned that “any money given by the government to anybody, there must be criteria attached to it, and you will be held accountable for what you use government money to do.”

“Presently, we have 15.7 million households on the social register, and we have about 62 million individuals on the social register. But, this is completely inadequate compared to the number of persons that require intervention by the Ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.

“Because it’s not a permanent register but a dynamic one. There are people coming and people going out, so whoever left should leave the register. And, if you are coming in, we should truly know that you deserve to be part of the register by the criteria,” she explained.

Edu revealed that the goal of the President Bola Tinubu administration was to resettle internally displaced persons and refugees coming in from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and other persons of concern.

“So, it’s not just about resettling them, or offering them humanitarian services or responding when we have a humanitarian crisis.

“The issue is, how can we prevent these humanitarian crises from happening? How can we work with the security agencies? How can we work with the communities to prevent this crisis from happening?

“Beyond this, we want to be able to provide a more resilient system that is reliable, and the interventions are sustainable, so it is not about going to offer a cup or bag of rice, no,” she added.