The Trump White House / Wikimedia Commons
CV NEWS FEED // Nearly half of foreign aid to Nigeria never reaches its intended recipients due to the ongoing corruption of some public officials, a Nigerian political analyst said in a Feb. 14 interview.
“The level of corruption in Nigeria is such that the IDPs [internally displaced persons] receive only about 50 percent of the food aid donated to them but notwithstanding, that 50 percent is helping the society,” Lawrence Ubarieke said, according to TruthNigeria.
Ubarieke’s comments were made in light of US President Donald Trump’s temporary freeze on most aid to foreign countries, a move that was recently blocked by a federal judge.
Although Ubarieke disagreed with Trump’s decision to pause all aid, he noted that he didn’t think the President should be blamed, since Nigerian politicians are rapidly getting wealthier as the poor become poorer.
“[Trump] must have been hearing reports about the high level corruption that is going on here, but for him to totally stop the aid coming down here is unacceptable,” he said.
Ubarieke expressed concern that the aid freeze would lead IDP youths to enter the streets to find food.
VATICAN’S CATHOLIC AID NETWORK: USAID CUTS ‘WILL KILL MILLIONS’
TruthNigeria reported several cases of the country’s officials failing to distribute foreign aid to those in need.
In October 2016, IDPs told Vice President Kashim Shettima’s wife, Nana Shettima, when she visited their camp that “officials continued to keep them in hunger and deprivation because food items were being stolen secretly from the stores at night and taken to the open market for sale.”
At the time, Kashim Shettima was serving as governor of Borno State, which is in northeastern Nigeria.
In July 2017, 50 trucks loaded with relief materials intended to aid IDPS were diverted to an unknown location.
TruthNigeria also reported that government officials have been indicted for stealing aid supplies from those in need.
A local councilor and a member of a camp feeding committee in Borno State were jailed in May 2017 for two years for selling rice the Danish Refugee Council had donated to help victims of a local insurgency.
In July 2018, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) President Danielson Akpan was impeached for diverting COVID-19 palliative medicines intended for students.
CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES CUTS STAFF BY NEARLY HALF AFTER USAID FREEZE
According to Time Magazine, a federal judge blocked the freeze Feb. 13, giving the Trump administration five days to prove they are complying. The administration had not publicly responded at the time of publication.
