By Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
The 52-Youth Coalition in Kwara State has thrown its weight behind the call by the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) governorship candidate in the 2027 election, Prof. Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia, for an independent audit of the Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP).
This, the coalition said, would go a long way in providing full details of the day to day financial operations of the agency.
The group, in a statement issued on Monday and made available to journalists in Ilorin, signed by the Director of Contact and Mobilisation of the coalition, Comrade Yusuf Eniola Obe, explained that, “the coalition fully supported the demand for a comprehensive and transparent account of every naira allocated to and expended by the agency since its inception.
“And the full details of the financial operations must include annual appropriations, actual fund releases, expenditure records, administrative costs, and outstanding balances”.
According to the coalition, “We commend the NDC candidate for raising these concerns and add our voice unreservedly to his call.
“Public funds channelled through the Kwara State Social Investment Programme belong to the people of Kwara State.
“Every kobo of those funds must be accounted for, openly, honestly, and without the evasion and opacity that has characterised this agency’s operations from the beginning”.
The coalition added, “the call for accountability coming from the NDC governorship candidate shows that Kwarans, across every political divide, are concerned about the opaque nature of KWASSIP operations and are interested in knowing how their collective resources are being spent”.
They described the level of alleged opacity surrounding KWASSIP as troubling, alleging that when the agency’s Director General, Dr. Abdulwasiu Tejidini, was asked to account for the total funds received by the agency, he was unable to answer.
The group noted, “That the Director General of a public agency cannot account for the funds his agency has received is not merely embarrassing, it is alarming.
“A Director General who does not know how much money his agency has received has either been deliberately kept in the dark or is deliberately keeping the public in the dark.
“The scenario is unacceptable and demands investigation. This is more reason the agency must be audited”.
The coalition condemned allegations that the programme had been used to make substantial payments outside established application and beneficiary selection processes, with some amounts reportedly falling outside the programme’s recognised benefit categories — a development the group described as a brazen misuse of public funds for political purposes.
“What is being described is not a social investment programme. It is a political slush fund, a mechanism for settling political obligations, rewarding loyalists, and inducing voters ahead of the 2027 general elections with money that belongs to the most vulnerable Kwarans the programme was supposedly designed to serve. This is a betrayal of public trust of the most cynical and contemptible kind,” the statement alleged.
The coalition issued a stern warning to officials of the agency and all those involved in the alleged misappropriation of KWASSIP funds, reminding them that the era of unaccountability in Kwara State is drawing to a close.
“We want to send a clear and unambiguous message to every official at KWASSIP and every political actor who has used this programme as a personal political instrument:
“The PDP if its formed the next government in Kwara State, and when it does, there will be a full and thorough accountability exercise.
“Every naira that cannot be accounted for, every payment made outside due process, and every political obligation settled with public funds will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Prepare your records. You will need them,” the coalition warned.
The group therefore called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and other relevant anti-corruption agencies to take immediate note of the allegations surrounding KWASSIP operations and commence preliminary investigations.