The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has described the Social Intervention Programme of President Bola Tinubu as a big scam.
The ADC made this assertion in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Monday.
The opposition party noted that findings by the Auditor-General that N33.75 billion in cash transfers to 3.29 million households cannot be verified are proof of what Nigerians have long suspected.
It stressed that under President Tinubu, social investment has become a racket run for the benefit of officials, not the poor.
The party recalled that at the beginning of the Tinubu administration, N585 million was reportedly wired to a private account under Betta Edu before she was caught.
It further stated that another N44 billion went missing from the National Social Investment Programme Agency under Halima Shehu, before the latest report by the Auditor-General of the Federation that a sum of N33.75 billion cannot be matched to any verified beneficiary.
“Let us call this what it is. Not mismanagement. Not an oversight. It is an organised racket, which this government has run under the guise of a social intervention programme. They are stealing from the poor and telling them to continue to endure hardship.
“At the time, the government made a show of suspending her. Now she is back on the President’s campaign council.
“This latest report of an unaccounted N33.75 billion intervention fund, buried inside a larger N78 billion fund, and the historical pattern of corruption that has trailed this kind of programme would suggest that this government has found a way to steal from the poor by turning the social intervention programme into a criminal enterprise,” it added.
The party emphasised that instead of the federal government addressing the wanton corruption associated with such interventions in the past, it has announced an even bigger package of $1 billion without demonstrating that it has made any effort to ensure greater transparency and accountability