FG accuses Nigerians of sabotaging social investment programs

The Federal Government has raised the alarm over Nigerians sabotaging its social investment programs.

The National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programs (NSIP), Dr. Umar Buba Bindir, disclosed this yesterday at the launch of the Outcomes-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Training for the program staff in Abuja.

He said the project, which is supposed to benefit Nigerians, is not yielding the desired results because many people entrusted with the responsibility of implementing it are sabotaging the government’s efforts.

The National Coordinator stated that “some people who are supposed to supervise the conditional cash transfer take advantage of the ignorance of the beneficiaries and share the money with them.”

He continued: “As part of the school feeding program, we have received reports from women who cook for their children and give them less than they should, and sometimes poor quality food.

“The same applies to the N-Power program. We engage young Nigerians to teach children in schools, we pay them $30,000 a month, but they do not go to schools.”

He noted that the unfavorable developments had prompted the government to prioritize monitoring and evaluating the entire program to achieve better results.

The week-long training for participants from 17 states including Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo and Jigawa, making up part And the programme, aims to equip monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practitioners and managers in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for effective service delivery.

Bindir told the beneficiaries that the Minister of Humanitarian Aid, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, is committed to objectively reviewing, reporting and documenting progress/achievements on government policies and programs, especially those that directly impact the poor and defenseless citizens.

He continued: “Much of what you will experience in this training will involve new, unique ways of doing things that aim to improve the lives of our people.

“You will agree with me that fiscal pressures and the ever-increasing expectations of ordinary citizens provide a constant impetus for governments to provide more services and higher quality standards.

“These pressures are also reason enough to find more cost-effective ways of doing things so that governments can achieve more with less. For the government to achieve more for citizens with fewer resources, it is therefore necessary to implement a very objective and effective tracking and evaluation system that will measure the effectiveness of a policy or program/project in achieving its goal and objective.”

The National Coordinator further said: “The importance of monitoring and evaluation in ongoing development and humanitarian programs cannot be overemphasized. Implementing M&E in programs/policies helps in improving performance and achieving results. There has now been a huge shift towards results-based management (RBM), which requires organizations to manage projects and programs for results.