One year of ministering to the vulnerable

Hajiya Sa’adiya Umar Farouq, Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development basked in glory of vindication as she kept a date with public accountability just a year after answering the call to national duty via an unprecedented presidential assignment to actualise the long overdue establishment of a Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

After being relentlessly targeted by hired hack-writers and mercenary mudslingers unleashed by political detractors to disparage her enthusiastic efforts and remarkably rapid and impactful performance in the multi-tasking demands of setting up a functional new megaministry by harmonising and consolidating several uncoordinated but related agencies while simultaneously fine-tuning and ensuring continuity of their respective programmes, the authoritative endorsements and credible commendations from stakeholders at the grand finale of events in commemoration of the ministry’s first year anniversary in Abuja, were welcome consolation and a moralebooster for the Amazon of Ministers.

It was sufficient, for example, for UN Resident Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Edward Kallon, to emphasise that though the responsibilities of the ministry were enormous, “Sa’adiya has started well; many people will be making negative comments, but she has done well. We are with you and we support you in all that you do.”

Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Mr. Simon Lalong, assured that the forum would continue to support the minister in implementing her programmes. He urged Hajiya Sa’adiya “Not to be discouraged by side talks and negative comments,” remarking that it was a tree with good fruits that people threw stones at.

Of course, the minister has always impressively remained calm and collected in the midst of all the orchestrated rabblerousing, a subtle strategy that enabled her result-oriented performance to speak louder for her than any vendetta or rejoinder.

For Hajiya Sa’adiya, however, there can be no turning back or despondency in maximizing available resources and expanding the avenues for government intervention by innovative policies to reach more poor; other vulnerable persons, and the teeming population of youths in need of means of livelihood.

That was after substantially reversing the declining fortunes of many existing programmes, especially N-Power where about 109,823 beneficiaries from Batches A and B have gone on to set up businesses in their communities, and the 500,000 Batches A and B beneficiaries who were in limbo for years have also been successfully exited, paving the way for Batch C with a total of 5,042,001 registrations received.

Going forward, the minister was elated with the take-off of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities following the presidential approval of the appointment of the executive members of the commission, expressing her happiness and fulfilment that one of the vulnerable groups “close to my heart” finally has a commission in place to cater to their needs, protect their rights and provide an enabling environment for them to maximize their potentials, thrive and contribute values to the society and the nation as a whole.

She disclosed that the ministry was working on the take-off of the National Senior Citizen’s Centre and a Humanitarian Assistance Help Desk to provide feedback and complaint mechanism for humanitarian actors to report and resolve challenges that impede humanitarian activities.

Nigeria has over 30 million persons living with disability that the commission will serve. The ministry is also addressing the equally important issue of creating structures and policies to guide humanitarian activities having held the first-ever civil security cooperation workshop where the civil security coordination framework and other structures were considered.

Only sworn enemies of the various categories of vulnerable people in Nigeria will persist in a vain charade to deliberately disparaging the transparently impactful performance of Hajiya Sa’adiya as Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in one year of setting up such a complex ministry and clearing the logjams and inconclusive loopholes afflicting existing intervention programmes for smooth and enhanced implementation processes.

What matters most to the minister is that the key stakeholders and target beneficiaries should continue to feel the tangible impact of the programmes under the ministry as they have testified to.

Huge as the task is, it only represents the next level in Hajiya Sa’adiya Farouk’s rise to prominence as an accomplished administrator of humanitarian operations and related disaster management and social development matters.