Federal government has said called on all United Nations agencies in Nigeria to render account of spending of funds meant for intervention programs to better the lives of Nigerians.
Minister of Women Affairs, Barrister Uju Ohaneye, said the UN which remains the global body for channeling aid from donor communities to support countries in need has failed Nigerian women and children on whose behalf it harnesses aid but ends up spending the money on frivolous projects such as meetings, advocacies and oral technical support which have little or no impact on the lives of poor Nigerians.
She made this known at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja where she said the ministry is writing a letter to all the UN agencies asking them to justify the millions of dollars they have been collecting on behalf of Nigeria’s vulnerable groups even as poverty levels are on the rise.
She said government is willing to go to court to ensure full disclosure of UN agencies ‘ account books in Nigeria and they fail to make public their accounts books to justify spending of donor monies they are managing on behalf of Nigerian women and Children, the will be sued.
“The people that have been in charge of sourcing funds from donors to help Nigerians are mainly the UN agencies but are they using it to help us, are we feeling the impact? I want Nigerians to understand that the UN raise these monies in your name to help us. On behalf of the women and children of this country, I am asking UN for account of these monies.
“I stand here as the minister of women affairs to demand from all the UN of the account of all the monies they sourced from donors in Nigeria’s name.
“If we don’t get that report between now and November 15, we are heading to court,” she said.
She adds that “We are demanding from UN to show Nigerians on newspapers accounts of how much monies are being donated to help Nigerians and what they use those monies Todo, Nigerians have every right to look at this and we are giving them one month from today, the 16th of October 2023 to November 15th 2023.
“If by 8th of November we did not hear anything from them, we will write them a pre-action letter from this ministry on behalf of Nigeria women and children.”
“We want to see the account of what they did. If you don’t give us this account, at least let Nigerians see what’s going on, then you, (the UN), apologize to them.
“Why are you leaving the grassroots problems to move up to the urban problems? If you want to address the grassroots problem,which is the reason the monies are given to you on our behalf, you are supposed to empower these women and give them a voice,” she queries.
The minister notes that despite millions of dollars claimed to be invested by the UN to alleviate poverty in Nigeria, poverty levels have been on the rise but instead of directly impacting issues of hunger and rising poverty in the country, the UN appears to be paying lip service to these salient concerns.
Source: The Guardian
