Betta Edu makes appointments into non-existent organisations

Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, has made fresh appointments into non-existent entities and defunct World Bank-supported projects, findings by Daily Trust have revealed.

Edu, a former commissioner of health in Cross River state, had on Monday, via a statement by her Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Rasheed Zubair, announced the appointment of 13 persons to head different entities and programmes under her ministry.

However, the report revealed that some of the appointments were made into entities that no longer exist, including those that are no longer part of her ministry.

Olubunmi Bello is one of the 13 persons appointed as the national coordinator of the Community and Social Development Programme (CSDP). This defunct $415 million World Bank-funded intervention project was launched in 2009 and officially concluded in June 2021.

The CSDP is a community-driven development project focusing on improving access to services for human development.

At its conclusion ceremony, former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, noted that 11 million Nigerians had benefited from the CSDP programme, with a clear record of impacting on poor and vulnerable communities and groups across the country.

Again, the current minister appointed Richard Romanus as the national programme manager of the Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations (YESSO), another defunct World Bank-supported project.

Details from the World Bank project tracking site revealed that the YESSO-supported programme in Nigeria, which was initiated in 2013 with $300 million, is defunct.

Attempts to find out if there are available records to show why the YESSO programme’s name was changed from “Employment” to “Empowerment” by the World Bank or the Nigerian government turned out negative.

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Further checks on the programme’s status showed that only the YESSO in Nigeria found on the World Bank tracking sites has the project IDs P157899 and P126964 and officially closed in September 2020.

Asked why the minister made appointments to defunct World Bank projects, the Special Adviser to Edu on Media and Public Affairs, Rasheed Zubair, said, “The first part of the YESSO and CSDP had ended, but the second part is beginning with this administration under National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office.”