Our Challenge Is Lack Of Trust – Minister, Tanko Sununu

The Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Tanko Sununu, has said that he is challenged by lack of trust from citizens.

Tanko Sununu said the current administration of President Bola Tinubu was committed to transparency in its humanitarian efforts.

In an interview on Thursday with Arise News, Sununu explained that the ministry has adopted a more transparent means of capturing the most vulnerable to ensure palliatives get to them.

He admitted that corruption had marred the ministry over time, but promised that efforts have been made to address corruption by introducing two ministers in the ministry.

Sununu explained the ministry, in partnership with World Bank, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), works to ensure every palliative gets to the right people.

“We are going to measure the success on what we want, based on the fact that we are going to introduce or strengthen our transparency criteria, unlike before the money are just given anyhow. There is a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria that anybody who is going to benefit from palliative intervention through government safety nets must have at least a digital identity. And digital identity is something that can be recognized with in terms of having your telephone number. You must also have at least a BVN number, an account number. And seriously we are working.

“People will say it’s really not everybody will have, quite agree. That’s a genuine argument. We are working together with World Bank and other agencies of government, like NIMC, to ensure that those digital identities are provided with immediate effect. So that we ensure that our accountability framework is something. For example now, if we say we have empowered 10 million people, the Western society will ask where is the evidence. And that evidence must stand the test of time. Where that is not reproducible, it becomes doubtful and a lot of issues will be raised and people will doubt even whether it happens or not,” he said.

The Humanitarian Minister of State assured that the ministry would deliver on its mandate.

He emphasized the need for more social security programmes that would help to cushion the effects of government policies.

Sununu continued, “Well, I will give you the assurance that since has changed for the fact that we have a president who is democrat, listening, and who also play by the rules of the game itself. The President solved the problem, deploying two ministers in that ministry, so that you can have a strong oversight and you can have a better way of relating with people. And that’s why I told you that we quite agree that our major challenge is that trust on the human face, both at local and international level.

“And people believe that that ministry is just a pipeline, as you rightly mentioned. But the president wants to change that narrative to make it more effective, more robust, so that it can serve as a strong buffer, most especially now that there are a lot of ongoing reforms. With those reforms, there is need for a strong buffer to absorb much shock that Nigerians are moving into.”