It was all going very well for Edu until she ran into the current brick wall. At only 37, an exponential rise up the ladder of politics for the medical doctor who had served as Commissioner for Health in Cross River, had painted a future awash with promise. But all of that promise is about to be washed down Nigeria’s rapidly filling drain.
The allegations are yet to scale the formidable hurdle of proof, but in Nigeria, there is hardly ever any smoke without fire. Some N585 million is the jaw-dropping amount traced to a private account which supposedly received the amount at the instance and instruction of the minister. The money was meant for payment to vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Cross River and Ogun States.
The story may still be developing, with the various state agencies eager to bare their newly sharpened teeth to the skeptical eyes watching the new administration. But the signs are that it is a classic Nigerian story, with the overarching theme that what was supposed to be an advantage has instead become an embarrassment.
Nigeria became a humanitarian basket case since Boko Haram scaled up its operations within the country in 2009. Attack after attack has left many communities on the verge of ruination.
Amidst the ruination wrought by Boko Haram and other equally ruthless terrorist groups, Nigeria has struggled to confront its considerable humanitarian crisis. Men, women, and their children have seen their previous lives obliterated and a new reality of squalid refugee camps, hopelessness, and horrible living conditions foisted on them.
Before the crisis, Nigeria had grappled with grand issues of multidimensional poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment. The activities of the terrorists only served to exacerbate an already tragic situation.
The Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Ministry was conceived by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to confront the mounting humanitarian challenge. It was further rebranded under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Yet, almost from inception, the Ministry has been rocked by allegations of money laundering on an outrageous scale.
Allegation after allegation followed Sadiya Umar-Farouk who was Minister under Buhari. The allegations have remained ceaseless. It is noteworthy that it was in the course of investigating allegations of fraud to the tune of N37.1 billion that Betta Edu was implicated.
Is there a grander irony in Nigeria than that which solemnly lies in the fact that the very ministry set up to sooth the pains of the victims of Nigeria’s rampant humanitarian crisis has itself been caught in a whirlpool of corruption and controversy?
The ongoing probe of the Humanitarian Affairs Minister is again forcing Nigerians to confront the hydra-headed monster of corruption.
If Nigerians are to ever agree on a major factor responsible for the country’s inability to fulfil its prodigious potential, it would be corruption. Corruption has almost singlehandedly ensured that a country which should be sitting at table with the most developed countries of the world is on the floor, sullen and scrambling for scraps.
Betta Edu’s predicament presents a relatively new government with its first major challenge. There may have been the fuel subsidy removal crisis, but this is unmistakably a potential banana peel for the Tinubu presidency.
The way and manner he handles it will determine whether Nigerians will nod in knowing resignation or sit up and take notice. Whatever it is, the current administration should commit to fighting corruption at different levels. Invariably, all those who continue to enable corruption in the system must be shown the way out. This is imperative if Nigeria is to get things right.
The war must be impersonal and unyielding, and no one whose hands are found in the till must be spared. As for Betta Edu, the allegation and subsequent investigation represent a spectacular fall from grace for a woman whose youth and gender were enough rebuke for the Nigerian political status quo, which still favours octogenarian men.
She may yet pick up the pieces of her fast crumbling edifice. However, it is doubtful that she will be able to put it back together or even build anything anywhere as attractive as what she has lost.
Whatever happens, Nigeria needs to win the battle against corruption, or gain the upper hand at least.
Ike Willie-Nwobu,
