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Renowned human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to transfer N32.7 billion and $445,000 recovered from officials of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) for proper use.
Falana, who also chairs the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), emphasized that the recovered funds were initially approved by President Bola Tinubu for key social intervention programs under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP). These include the school feeding programme, N-Power, conditional cash transfers, and small business grants under GEEP.
While commending the EFCC for recovering the stolen funds, Falana pointed out that the money has yet to be redirected to NSIPA, despite the agency being the rightful custodian.
“We commend the EFCC and urge it to intensify efforts to recover the outstanding N20 billion still missing. But more importantly, the recovered N32.7 billion and $445,000 should be transferred to NSIPA to help ease the suffering of over 133 million Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty,” Falana stated.
He further urged the federal, state, and local governments to increase funding for the programme, especially in light of rising government revenue. According to Falana, social protection should be treated as a national priority—not as an afterthought.
His statement comes amid renewed calls for transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s welfare funds, following a series of corruption scandals in the humanitarian sector.
