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Allegations of corruption and diversion of funds are spreading in Zamfara state after a youth group went public with a demand that the governor gives account of how he spent over five billion Naira SURE-P funds.
The group, the Zamfara chapter of the Northern Youths Association (NYA), called a press conference Monday where it demanded that the state government give public account of how it spent funds accruing to the state from SURE-P.
“Though funds received by the state government under the SURE-P program stands at over N5 billion now, there is nothing to show for it in terms of youth development,” chairman of the association, Mannir Haidara, said.
He alleged that the state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, may have mismanaged the SURE-P funds and did very little to “empower youths” in the state.
He said despite promises, the state government failed to pay the registration fees for May/June 2013 SSSCE for students from the state to collect their results and seek higher education.
“We cannot boast of being good leaders of tomorrow when we are not even allowed by the present crop of our leaders to go to school,” Mr. Haidara said.
In a swift reaction to the allegation, the Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Birnin-Magaji, said the state government channelled the SURE-P funds into capital projects, especially roads rehabilitation and construction.
“Right from the time we started receiving the funds, we sat at council level and resolved that instead of making it merry go round, we will create avenues that will open up opportunities to our unemployed youths and we considered the provision of access roads as one of them.”
Mr. Birnin-Magaji also said the state government utilised the funds by encouraging the establishment of private sanitation outfits, which employed over 200 youths as street cleaners across the state so far, which has “greatly impacted positively in the lives of our youths.”
Mr. Birnin-Magaji is however yet to release a detailed statement of account to back his claims.
A growing demand for accountability and transparency, especially by younger Nigerians, has put the country’s politician on the spot, with many failing to come up with convincing explanations when challenged to render accounts of public funds at their disposal.
Recently, the federal lawmakers – members of the House of Representatives – were unable to account for N750 million they received for a constitution review exercise after another youth group filed a Freedom of Information request demanding financial statements.
The youth group now appear set to head for the courts to extract the desired financial statement from the federal lawmakers.
And so is the Northern Youths Association in Zamfara.
“If the state government fails to render account of how it managed the SURE-P funds, the association will have no option than to take the matter to court,” Mr. Haidara said.
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