Nigerians must smile again, Humanitarian Affairs Minister assures

The new Minister of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu has assured of the commitment of the President Bola Tinubu to alleviate poverty and bring smiles back to the faces of Nigerians.

The Minister who gave the assurance while addressing key stakeholders of the Ministry shortly after she was sworn-in on Monday in Abuja, decried the prevalence of extreme poverty in Nigeria. According to her, there were 136 million poor Nigerians, and over 7million live in extreme poverty.

The Minister who was touched by the alarming rate of poverty in the country expressed her determination to do all it takes to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty and to bring smiles back to the faces of Nigerians.

She said, “It is the fourth anniversary of this ministry. There’s always a time for a step up, and when it’s time for a step up, God will usually send another messenger to take it to that level, the level of renewed hope.

“I’m happy to meet all of you here today. and I bring you all the goodwill from His Excellency, the President of our country, President bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has an agenda, and the agenda is simple, renew the hopes of Nigerians.

“There’s a whole lot of work to be done. I’ve taken my time over a few days to go through some data. So I’ve seen that we have about 136 million poor Nigerians. Let’s assume in all honesty, that the data we have is correct, that we have 200 million Nigerians, which I think we are more than that, 136 million is alarming and is completely unacceptable.

“Of course, different data sources have said we have over seven million extremely poor persons living in Nigeria, there’s a reason why the ministry was renamed to refocus us back. We need to bring smiles back to the faces of Nigerians. Nigerians must smile again, before we finish the first term of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“We have a huge tax to deliver. We must get down to every single sport in this country and reach those who are underserved, those who are poor, those who need a renewed hope, we’re not going to play games.

“We’re going to increase our efforts. We’re going to be very sincere, transparent and accountable. We’re going to be very transparent and we are going to be very accountable to Nigerians.”

The Minister pleaded for the cooperation of all stakeholders of the ministry to work as a team to deliver the dividend of good governance to Nigerians.

“I want to plead with you I’m a team player by push really hard. We have a huge job to do, and so all hands must be on deck, people are watching, the minutes are counting already, Nigerians are waiting. I want to beg us all to drop any baggage that will not allow us to do the job the way we should do it.

“I want to plead with us to fasten our seatbelts because we’ll be flying at the speed of light. I don’t know if it’s good for you, but it’s good for the President and it’s good for Nigerians that a younger person is here. And the reason is simple, we need energy we need innovation, we need speed to reach 136 million people. As a matter of urgency, like the Permanent Secretary has said the cracks in the system, any failure at all in the system, any lapses in the system, whether it’s in the health sector or in the agric sector, anywhere, they all end up as humanitarian crisis and of course, it results to the cycle of poverty.

Minister added,”Our president President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be bringing on board very new people centered, grassroots based life changing programs, some of the most successful programs in the history of poverty alleviation anywhere in the world. All of us work on the ideas and we’ll unveil it soon Nigerians we’re going to be tactical, and we’re going to be smart about it.

“We’ll give ourselves timelines and we must walk to meet it. And I plead with you when you do the service, it’s not service to man, is service to God. Commit everything you have to it.

“A lot of people are affected by humanitarian crisis over 16.5 million people. According to the UN 60% of them are in the northern part of Nigeria. Lots of people in Nigeria are living under $1 per day, it will not continue. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said no, this is the end, we must bring renewed hope,” the Minister said.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Nasir Gwarzo expressed delight that the new Minister had come onboard to take the ministry to its next level of achievement.

The Perm Sec. who officially handed over to the Minister expressed confidence that the Minister would deliver on her mandate of alleviating the sufferings of Nigerians.