Barely a year ago, exactly on Wednesday, August 21, 2019, few months into the second term of the administration, while assigning portfolio to newly inaugurated ministers at the Presidential Villa, President Muhammadu Buhari announced the creation of five new ministries–namely Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development; Police Affairs; Special Duties and International Affairs; Aviation; and Power.
The Social Development ministry was brand new, while the other four were more or less an uncoupling of ministries that had been merged with others previously.
The Social Development ministry came at a time of great need for social security impelled by internal security concerns and the growing number of internally displaced and destitute populations. The ministry therefore subsumes the roles formerly played by departments such as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relief agencies. President Buhari therefore upgraded the nation’s disaster management and social security machinery with cabinet authority and direct delegated presidential discretion.
President Buhari assigned Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq as the minister of newly created ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
The choice of a head for the ministry also reflected the President’s deep concern for better social security services for the hordes of refugees and victims of banditary, insurgency, communal violence and other crises in the land. Who better understands the shocks of social destabilisation than a woman, the victims of which majority are women?!
International organizations, donor agencies, partners, NGOs and other stakeholders considered the creation of the ministry as a bold move by President Buhari to ensure coordination and collaboration between and among stakeholders in response to emergencies and its attendant impact on lives and livelihood.
As mentioned above, the creation of the ministry brought together relevant agencies under one roof. Since 2019, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), North East Development Commission (NEDC), Social Investment Programmes (SIP), and Office of the Senior Special Assistant — Sustainable Development Goals have come under one direct supervisory authority.
The establishment of the ministry was also in line with global best practices in approach to disaster and humanitarian challenges and commended by stakeholders at home and abroad.
The mandate of the ministry is to “develop humanitarian policies and provide effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions; ensure strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response; and manage the formulation and implementation of fair, focused social inclusion and protection programmes in Nigeria”.
The minister, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, who is experienced as National Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMN), literally hit the ground running with no office and no structure on ground. Rather than being deterred by the enormous tasks before her, she mobilized necessary resources to ensure the assigned task is achieved.
One year down the line, the creation of the ministry and appointment of its pioneer minister has brought passion and compassion in the execution of her mandate. She has continued to focus on the mandate and addressing all inherited challenges in the sector.
One of her achievements is establishing structures and ensuring appropriate manning of units and departments for optimum performance.
One of the biggest challenges of the sector which she inherited was lack of coordination, collaboration and appropriate linkages between and among stakeholders.
Before the creation of the ministry there has been obvious lack of synergy among both local and international operators in the sector.
While the activities of the NGOs operating in Nigeria has been uncoordinated, there was also friction between them and government organizations especially the security agencies. It is to her credit and proaction that a workshop was organized that brought together civil society organizations under one umbrella in the North East. The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon commended the effort of the minister thus: “it was the first time that civil authorities, the military and humanitarian actors from national and international levels were meeting under one roof to examine the humanitarian challenges in the North East, and prioritizing prevention always, development wherever possible and humanitarian action when necessary”.
As a fallout and positive outcome of the first ever Civil Security Cooperation Workshop (CISEC) in Maiduguri in November, 2019, National Humanitarian Coordination Forum was created early 2020 to close the existing gaps and ensure smooth operation of all humanitarian activities in Nigeria. Similarly, Humanitarian Policy Dialogue Forum was also established to provide a platform for the ministry to interact with all CSOs and NGOs on government policies and humanitarian activities.
The ministry became even more significant in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was also easy for the President and Commander-in-Chief to respond appropriately and give a clear directive on how to provide humanitarian services to the poor and vulnerable in the society. While providing leadership and coordination to agencies under her ministry, reliefs were provided to disaster victims and maintenance of IDPs.
In executing the presidential directive, the minister has not been an armchair leader who issues directives from the comfort of her office. She has, to the delight of many Nigerians, been a boot on the ground at various intervention centres across the country. Some of her achievements in the last one year include the implementation of the National Social Investment Programmes which are all targeted at the poor and vulnerable people. One of such inherited programmme is N-Power which addresses youth unemployment and improving their livelihood.
Another people-focused programme is Government Enterprise and Entrepreneurship aimed at addressing the the challenge of credit and financial inclusion for over 37 million Nigerians at the base of the economic pyramid who have no opportunity to access loans. The programme which is executed by the Bank of Industry (BOI) and supervised by the ministry leverages extensively on data, technology, mobile phones and a network of 4, 325 agents deployed in all the 36 states and FCT.
The ministry under its flagship programmes TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni has continued to provide incremental loans of between N10,000 and N30,000 to traders, artisans, enterprising youth, agricultural workers and other micro-service providers.
With the outbreak of Covid-19 and the myriad of disasters and emergency troubles rolling across the land, the creation of the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development confers great foresight on the character of President Muhammadu Buhari. It has also thrown enormous responsibility on the shoulders of the supervising minister who is proving to be equal to the task.
