FG: Why We Can’t Publish Beneficiaries Of COVID-19 Palliatives

The federal government has said not publishing the names of the beneficiaries of the government social intervention and relief packages aimed at cushioning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic does not mean the program was fraught with irregularities or shrouded in secrecy that leads to lack of accountability and transparency.

The minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Farouk, asserted that it was against the norms to publish the names of individuals that benefit from government interventions.

The Minister said this on Wednesday during the presidential task force briefing on COVID-19.

She said minister said it ran counter to “human dignity” when you help someone and then publicize it.

She disclosed that the government has the record of the beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme and COVID-19 palliatives in states, local governments and communities.

“We were given 70,000 metric tonnes of grains. As of today, we were able to deploy 9,320 metric tonnes of grains to these three affected areas. That is about 334 trucks, while Kano is ongoing. Fifty trucks are almost arriving Kano,” she said.

The government have come under public opprobrium for it sharing of the palliatives, with people saying the intervention was done in a manner that sidelined some states, especially in the south, and skewed in favour of  states of northern extraction.

HEDA, a civil society group, has accused government “at all levels” of failing Nigerians.

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