Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to remit 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 released on Sunday through his Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) platform, stressed that the funds must be redirected to the appropriate agency to serve the purpose for which they were originally allocated.
He recalled that in January 2025, President Bola Tinubu approved N32.7 billion for the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme, which includes school feeding, N-Power, conditional cash transfers, and small business support under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.
He noted that while the EFCC had earlier recovered the exact sum of N32.7 billion and an additional $445,000 from allegedly corrupt officials within the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry, the funds are yet to be redirected to the NSIPA, despite the EFCC’s stated policy of ensuring that recovered funds are returned for their intended purposes.
“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 stated.
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He also called on all tiers of government, federal, state, and local, to scale up their contributions to the NSIP in light of the significant rise in government revenues.
According to him, the Federation Account Allocation Committee shared N2.001 trillion in July 2025 from a gross total of N3.836 trillion, and N1.8 trillion in June 2025.
He urged that these increased revenues be reflected in enhanced social investment rather than mere tokenism.
“Governments must go beyond lip service and invest meaningfully in social protection programmes.
“They must put their money where their mouth is,” Falana concluded.