Dr. Betta Edu's Financial Dealings, Where It All Started

When I first saw the accusations and counter-accusations against Dr. Betta Edu, the Honourable Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the first thing that came to my mind was to look into her trajectory down to her pre-ministerial position era. I will briefly tell you what I found out.

But before that, let me clear the table for this public discussion by reiterating in clear terms that Dr. Betta Edu is not being accused of squandering, stealing or "eating" public funds, rather, the whole outcry is that she approved the sending of the project money meant for the vulnerable Nigerians in Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ogun and Lagos States to a private account which has since been found out to belong to the project's accountant. That option became necessary being that the grant project was to be cash-in-hand since most of the beneficiaries are unbanked.

Looking at the track record of Dr. Edu, the smearing storyline of misappropriation is neither here nor there. As a medical doctor who would rather prefer rendering humanitarian services with her personal resources and professional skills, she would do more with public funds.

As a missionary, her father didn't only instil discipline but the life of a humanitarian to the young Betta. With diligence and honesty, she grew to enviable ranks both in her medical profession and politics. In 2013, as the Medical Officer of Health in her state, Cross River, she was put in charge of the Staff Clinic. She achieved so much including reorganising and strengthening health policies within the Primary Health Care Department in 2014.

In 2018, she emerged as the Vice Chairman of the Forum of all CEOs of Primary Health Care Agencies and Boards in Nigeria. While she held sway, Dr. Edu reformed national policy decisions for Primary Health Care development in Nigeria and collaborated with the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency to ensure full implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof policy in all 36 states and FCT in Nigeria. She advocated regularly to the President, National Assembly and key stakeholders to influence the institutionalisation and full implementation of key health policies, particularly the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).

In 2015, she became the Special Adviser on Community Health to the Executive Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade. In this, she made so many landmark achievements including facilitating partnerships locally and internationally. In 2016, she became the first Director General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (CRSPHCDA) and up until 2019, she facilitated the creation of Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the enactment of the Agency’s establishment Law, the creation of Cross River State Health Insurance Scheme and the enactment of the Agency’s establishment Act, Produced the first ever Minimum Service Package for health care in the State, Revitalised over 200 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in line with the PHC Revitalisation policy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Constructed 60 New PHCs to promote equitable access to primary care in unreached/underserved communities. 

Then, in 2019, she became the Commissioner for Health, Cross River State which she held till March 2022. She established partnerships with local and international development partners and mobilised over 10 million USD into the state health system to support strategic investments in Resilient Systems for Sustainable Health (RSSH) and quality healthcare service coverage.

When the daredevil COVID-19 surfaced, Dr. Edu was appointed as the Chairman of the Cross River State COVID-19 Response Taskforce and with her leadership and core technical skills successfully coordinated the Cross River State COVID-19 Response, established and coordinated the Emergency Operations Centre for COVID-19 in the state and implemented the Incident Action Plan for Cross River State.

In March 2022, she emerged as the National Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) where she oversaw numerous empowerment and humanitarian outreaches to millions of APC women and non-party women as well. Her ingenuity resulted in the mobilisation of over 20 million Nigerian women in support of President Tinubu's election bids.

Within the few months she had served as the Honourable Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu had transversed the nooks and crannies of Nigeria delivering humanitarian materials to the vulnerable people of the country. We saw her move to the creeks that even security agents detest. Her passion and dedication to her duty was contagious, to say the least

In all these, she was not caught in the web of any financial mismanagement or misappropriation. Instead, she earned herself numerous awards within and outside the shores of Nigeria; over 600 awards from reputable organisations.

I will wrap this up with an analogy of what my late mother used to say whenever she prayed. In Igbo language, she would say, "anyị bụ azụ anyị agaghi agọ agọ mmiri." Literally translated, it is "We are fishes we can't deny water." She used this whenever she wanted to ask for forgiveness of sin, meaning that "we have the nature of sin and we can't deny having any sin in us." Humanitarian work is in the nature of Dr. Betta Edu, she can't deny it. A friend once told me that Betta's zeal for this work would get her into trouble one day. If my friend was to be a prophet, his church would be flooded by now. Those who are very zealous and committed to their jobs do have lots of traps. Sometimes it's either they unintentionally get themselves into trouble or others around who are envious of them would fabricate problems just to get them out of the way. In this Betta Edu's scenario, the latter is the case.

I will employ the president, His Excellency, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu to tamper justice with mercy. Dr. Edu's zealousness, dedication to her duties and achievements in this short period supersede her errors, if any.

BETTA EDU CAN BE TRUSTED

COVID-19: I WISH WE HAVE A PROPHET.

As a born-again Christian, I have always tried not to get engaged in some controversial topics or discussions involving the church and the pastors especially when I sense that the original intent is to bring the church to ridicule. But, for some time now, even before the unfortunate ravaging Corona Virus, there has been a heated argument and dissenting opinions among the Christian community and also people who are not within the Christian religious circle as it concerns the church, the churchgoers, and more especially the pastors (men of God). After the outbreak of COVID-19, the controversy has become multi-faceted.

Anytime I read or listen to the arguments, or extremely put, the wars against or in favour of men of God and their denominations during this COVID-19 pandemic, the only thing that hits my mind is “I wish we have a prophet.” To continue in this article, let me make reference to a story in the Bible which I like so much, and it will have a lot of relevance to my opinion as put in this piece: “Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, so the plague was stopped”. Numbers 16: 47-48.

From the creation of the world, there have been times of famine, plagues and pestilences. But something significant is that God had always alerted His people through His prophets and servants who were close to Him. Whether it was a plague brought by God Himself, or one caused by enemies, God had always been on the lookout for His people, and would always speak through His servants who were privy to the secret things. Psalms 25: 14, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” God reveals secrets or impending dangers to those who are close to Him to save them and the entire people from such harm as COVID-19. Look at what happened in the Bible, Genesis 18:17, “And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing.” Even in God’s anger against Sodom and Gomorrah, He remembered that there was a man so close to Him who should know about the doom coming against the country. It has been in the nature of God to reveal to His people any danger in the form of war, plague, famine, etc, through His prophets/servants. Look again at what happened in 2 Kings 6:8-23, the king of Syria was planning war in his chamber, and God was revealing all his strategies to Elisha who was far away in Israel, and Elisha was revealing the same to the King of Israel.

As COVID-19 ravages, I keep asking myself, “Don’t we have a prophet?” Is there no prophet close enough to God whom God could have spoken to? Even if it was artificially developed in a Wuhan laboratory in far away China to kill Africans as some people have claimed, is there no prophet in Africa; Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, etc, and even USA or Europe who was so close to God that He could have revealed it to? Even before its breakout? At the beginning of 2019, lots of “prophesies” were released from “men of God” who had claimed to have spoken what God had for the people. Within the year as a whole, all denominations held various prophetic programmes and annual spiritual events where the glory of God was supposed to have overwhelmed, and in all, non heard from God directly concerning the coming plague. The 2020 new year “prophesies” came too, and no man of God or a Christian was in the secret place of God to access the information on the pending pandemic. Do we really have a prophet here? Or, do we still have such Christians so close to God that God can say “How can I hide this from my son…”

Now that the plague is already here, is there no prophet who can stand in the gap to make an atonement to quench the plague? From the place I cited in Numbers 16, God told Moses that a plague was coming upon Israel, Moses asked Aaron to run into the nation to make atonement for the people, but before Aaron could get to the people, the plague had started. Then Aaron ran into the midst of the people and made atonement, “and he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.”

As no one got the revelation of the Corona Virus plague before it started, don’t we have a prophet who could make an acceptable atonement for the people? The plague has already begun, is there no man of God who is close enough to God who can run into the midst of the people of Nigeria and Africa to stand between the dead and the living so the plague can be put to stop?

It is pretty disheartening that what we get today is the direct opposite of what we read in the Bible. So in this challenging health crisis, instead of us to get direct messages or prophesies from God with unaltered utmost precision, we are getting guesses and false prophesies. We are hearing messages born out of sentiments, human instincts and personal idiosyncrasies of the preachers. That is why we get flying prophesies concerning the disease which turn out not to happen. With the susceptible false declarations, they further endanger the already troubled church. They indirectly attack the image of the church of Christ and breed doubts over the power of God. But glory be to God that He is God almighty, and no man can bring Him down. They speak their minds to either support what they like or castigate what they hate, and not the mind of God. God is not a liar, if He says that COVID-19 will end today, it will not exceed 11.59 pm today. That’s how mighty He is.

Instead of us having prophets who will run to make atonement to bring things to normalcy, and save this generation by standing between the dead and the living, we have men of God who deploy all their energies towards castigating the governments and their measures to curb the virus. Instead of having men of God who will go back to God and hold Him as Jacob held God in Paniel, no, we have them put up fights against the government for shutting the doors of the tabernacles. They leave the main fight which should be against the demonic plague, and chasing shadow. All of us are aware that the Nigerian government has turned the whole thing about the virus up-side-down using it as means of embezzling funds, violating human rights, violating democratic principles, arbitrary orders and obnoxious rules, but we should focus on striking down the enemy instead of its instrument. Pastors who have turned their pulpits into platforms for attacking the government are like attacking a headache instead of attacking the malaria parasite causing the headache.