Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately transfer N32.7 billion and $445,000 recovered from officials of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
Falana, in a statement on Sunday through his Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) forum, said the funds must be redirected to their intended purpose of financing social protection schemes.
He recalled that in January 2025, President Bola Tinubu approved N32.7 billion for the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which covers school feeding, N-Power, conditional cash transfers, and small business support under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.
The senior lawyer noted that although the EFCC had earlier recovered the exact amount alongside an additional $445,000 from allegedly corrupt officials of the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry, the money has not been channelled back to NSIPA as expected.
“We commend the EFCC and urge it to intensify efforts to recover the outstanding N20 billion still unaccounted for. But more importantly, the recovered N32.7 billion and $445,000 should be transferred to the National Social Investment Programme Agency to help alleviate the hardship faced by over 133 million multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians,” Falana said.
He further urged federal, state, and local governments to increase their contributions to NSIP in light of rising government revenues. According to him, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared N2.001 trillion in July 2025 and N1.8 trillion in June 2025 from gross revenues of N3.836 trillion and above.
“Governments must go beyond lip service and invest meaningfully in social protection programmes. They must put their money where their mouth is,” he declared.
