COVID-19: Group raises alarm over fake donations, diversion

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

A Rights Group, “Follow the Money” has raised the  alarm that despite death sentence via COVID-19 hovering like sward of Damocles, some agencies of government have continued to make bogus and unredeemable monetary pledges towards the fight of the pandemic.

The founder of the group, Hamzat Lawal is concerned that apart from the private sector that were specific on their donations towards the over N40 billion pledged  so far, donations from government agencies are enmeshed in rhetorics.

He maintained that agencies like the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation(NNPC) and its partners, Cabinet Ministers as well as the National Assembly failed to come out clear on their donations, unlike individuals and private sectors forgetting that Nigeria is a signatory to open government partnership.

Mele Kyari, GMD, NNPC

“NNPC came and said they have mobilized about $11million from some oil and gas companies, they listed all the names and signed a statement which was exciting.

“We asked for specifics on how these monies would be disbursed, the minister said it’s in-kind donation, and would be disbursed through these companies’ procurement policies,” he said.

According to him, what this means is that the Money from  NNPC and its partners would not come in cash based on the information got through  the twitter handle of the Group Managing Director which was contrary to his press release earlier.

On the muddled donations made by Cabinet  Ministers, and members of the House of Representatives, he stated,

Feme Gbajabiamila, Speaker, House of Representatives

“Let me go to our politicians, first the Cabinet Ministers of the federation said  50 per cent of their salary, what is 50 per cent? Nigerian budget does not talk about percent but figures What is 50 per cent of your salary?

“The Speaker of the House of Representatives said they would  donate two months of their salary (March and April) towards COVID-19, what is that two months salary? The private sectors never gave us percentage, they gave us figures. Moreover, the amount they  receive as salary, is not know to us,”

Lawal said the fight against corruption cannot be real without proactive information dissemination.

“We have a freedom of information law that empowers people like us to be given information, we often  complain  of fake news, when you don’t give information, you are empowering mischief makers who work with concocted false information and distribute them.

He stated that the Nigerian government cannot fight this pandemic alone, that they must be ready to give information and allow constructive engagement  and feedback.