SERAP Seeks Probe Of Social Intervention Spending
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a presidential panel of enquiry to probe spending on all social safety nets and poverty alleviation programmes and projects executed between 2015 and 2022.
SERAP also urged the President to publish the findings of the investigation and ensure suspected perpetrators of corruption and mismanagement of public funds meant to take care of the poor are prosecuted as appropriate.
The group made the demands in an open letter dated November 19, 2022 and signed by its deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare.
SERAP stated that the probe is necessary in the light of a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows damning revelations that some 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.
It also stressed the report suggests a grave violation of the public trust, the lack of political will to genuinely address poverty and uphold your government’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.
The organisation maintained that the report that 133 million Nigerians are poor suggests corruption and mismanagement in the spending of trillions 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.
SERAP also said the government has legal obligations to effectively and progressively address and combat extreme poverty as a matter of human rights.
It added that the failure to address extreme poverty has resulted in high levels of inequality, and serious violations of economic and social rights of Nigerians, particularly the socially and economically vulnerable sector of the population.