FG Plans To Include Dead, Injured Soldiers’ Family On Social Register

• Kazeem Badmus

The Federal Government has unveiled plans to include families of dead soldiers who were injured during military operations on the national social register and its poverty alleviation programmes.

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, gave the hint in Abuja on Monday, during a working visit to the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa.

Dr Edu said there was a need for collaboration between the ministry and the military to protect humanitarian aid workers and other staff of the ministry on the field to reach out to those in need of humanitarian aid.

She said: “We want to expand our social register, social database to accommodate military persons that have either been affected by war or injured and some that were even killed and left their families behind and we need this data from the Military so that we can have them captured under the social register so that the poverty alleviation programmes can be far-reaching touch lives.

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“The Chief of Defence Staff has promised to collaborate with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to see that Nigerians truly are brought out of the humanitarian crisis and out of poverty.

“Our target is people who are below the poverty line. The people we are targeting to elevate from poverty, some of them are relatives or live in the Barracks, they’re linked to the Military, or actually families that were left behind by soldiers that were lost during Military operations.

“We want to see how we can have all of these persons on the social register to benefit from President Tinubu’s renewed hope initiative.

“The President is very passionate about eradicating poverty from Nigeria and passionate about reducing the number of persons who are affected by humanitarian crises and for us to effectively do our job in the North-East and other areas of Nigeria.

“We need that strong collaboration with the Military to reach out to people who are affected, and also protect our staff that will be on the field working.”

In his remarks, the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Musa, applauded the Minister’s ingenuity on the proposed inclusion of Military personnel on the Social Register, pledging support in attaining the goals of the Ministry.

He said: “It is important that we look at the humanitarian aspects of the entire operation. For us in the Military, while we conduct the kinetic and non-kinetic operations, the humanitarian aspect of it is also critical.

“There is always a linkage between poverty and acts of criminality and we believe once the Ministry succeeds, it makes our job a lot better.

“We are assuring the minister that we are going to give her all the support she requires, wherever they want to go, whatever logistics they need, we are going to support.

“We are also happy that other communities will also be considered, which is critical. The Troop’s morale will be high, knowing that they are also being considered in the aspect of humanitarian assistance, so we will work together, and we assure you that we will achieve success.”