NG-CARES touched 800,000 lives in Nasarawa in 2024 – Coordinator

Dahiru Umar Ibrahim is the Nasarawa State Coordinator of the NG-CARES program, a pro-poor program designed to cushion the economic impact brought about by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the floods that ravaged several communities last year. In this interview with reporters in Abuja, Ibrahim reviewed the activities of his organization […]

Dahiru Umar Ibrahim is the Nasarawa State Coordinator of the NG-CARES program, a pro-poor program designed to cushion the economic impact brought about by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the floods that ravaged several communities last year. In this interview with reporters in Abuja, Ibrahim reviewed the activities of his organization last year, how N-CARES came to the rescue of 800, 000 vulnerable people. Excerpts:

Your team resently undertook a 4-day retreat in Abuja. Sir, what is the idea behind this retreat?

Of course, retreat are usually organized you know to get all staff together to reflect on what had transpired over the year and that is what we just did. We had a successful year in 2024. That was the year we received two national awards and we received the highest imbursement that the state had received in a single time for any programme. So it was a moment of reflection and the real icing on the cake for last year was the people that we were able reach with those amount of funds that we received in the state were more than eight hundred (800) thousand beneficiaries. Who had either benefitted from the cash transfer public works or are part of communities that benefitted from community infrastructures, basic community infrastructures in terms of schools renovations, primary healthcare renovation, building; and you know and other key sectors. We also have the agricultural component. There were a lot of communities that benefitted from road infrastructure which is the rural roads spanining across all local government at least ten kilometers (10km) of rural roads in addition to infrastructure, we have at least three (3) wet markets (for perishable food crops) infrastructure, which we every local government benefitted from, we have wet-market structure. We have being giving fertilizers, assets and all those assets were given to fifteen (15) thousand individuals and that was part of what culminated to eight hundred thousand plus beneficiaries that we were able to reach in a single year. That was a huge milestone. We have to celebrate those who were doing these first of all and we also celebrate the political will the Governor gave us because without his political will, none of these would have happened. He has being leading from the front and we just wanted to have a moment of reflection and to also set goals for 2025 so that we can do more and better, serve and make the state proud in serving the communities especially the poor and vulnerable.

Are there mechanism in place for your team to go out there into the state to review the impact of the programmes on the lives of the 800 thousand beneficiaries?

Of course, definitely. We have a working SOP in terms of monitoring and evaluation. We also go back to the community to admonish them on sustainability and one good thing about our project is that they are community driven from the start to the finish. The communities are actively involved in decision making, implementation and by fiat they are also very much involved in the sustainability of the projects. That is why each of our project we carry the communities along and that is why we don’t have underutilized projects. Each of our projects, we do give the community because it is the community’s need. Whenever you give them what they need, of course they will utilize it and they will guard it jealousy. I think that is working for us. I wouldn’t say it’s a hundred percent but for areas where there are issues, we also have a grievance committee within the community so that they can resolve some of these grievances. We also have a monitoring committee apart from our own committee. Monitoring committee set up at the community level to always engage them to know how they are progressing and how they are sustaining our projects and how we can make things better for them.

You said you are celebrating your achievements for last year and also trying to set up goals for this year. Sir, what goals are you setting for 2025?

Emm… Before the goals, I also want to acknowledge that in the process of last year, we lost a colleague who was really a backbone to N-GCARES who is the former SVC, the late Hassan Yahaya Egwa. We also use to reflect on his own impact and also gave him a posthumous award to honour his memory. He was a civil servant, a professional civil servant. That been said, for 2025 the programme is coming to an end but there is an additional programme but it has eligibility criteria. Not all states are built to even participate and it’s ideal to participate in the next programme. So, our goal this year is to qualify the state to be able to participate in the next programme and also to conclude on everything we have started. Mind you, we also have an assessment for the last programme before it closes. Doing that assessment is necessary for retaining our frontier position as the best in the country. These are some of the goals we set for ourselves. We also want to promote and improve on safeguard issues. Issues of gender based violence amongst communities, environmental issues and social issues. These are the areas we are going to concentrate on in 2025 and also ensure that everything become better and achieve more than we achieved in 2024.

Looking at your organization’s interventions, how would say these interventions align with the developmental aspirations of first, Nasarawa State governor, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

Of course, there is perfect alignment and the programme is a national initiative and it perfectly aligns with the renewed hope agenda as well as what we do for the communities. For the state, in this programme, there are about eleven (11) interventions. So, out of the eleven, every state was given the opportunity to look into the interventions and see how it aligns politically. When we came in, we were able to identify seven (7) areas not us as an organization but the Governor selected seven in line with his own aspirations, aligns with his own NEDS document which was the reason why we adopted the seven and we are implementing the seven. You know our state is very big on agriculture which was why we had four interventions in agriculture and then, we are also so deep in social protection rights which is why we have three that has to do with community development, and building basic infrastructures around. So, everything we do in the programme perfectly aligns with the agenda of first of all His Excellency, the Governor of Nasarawa State, Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule and the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

You are a young man, the governor has given you the responsibility of overseeing a project that is worth billions of naira. Sir, how are you able to cope in terms of accountability and prudent management of resources under your care?

I am very humbled by the opportunity that His Excellency, the Governor gave me and it is a burden that I carry with utmost sense of responsibility. I know how youths can be and some times. I feel I have the generational burden because many people’s destinies depends on what I am able to do and I have to be accountable. Everybody loves money, but you can’t deep your hands in public funds. I have zero tolerance in dipping hands in public funds. That is why we try to make sure that each and every amount that comes to the state goes to the communities, must go to the beneficiaries where they are suppose to go to. And I have always thanked and appreciated His Excellency, the Executive Governor for giving me this opportunity and it’s something that I know that I have been carrying out with the fear of God and I pray that we continue to do that as a youth friendly Governor, will always give opportunities to thrive and give back to the community to really make an impact – that is what I have being doing and will continue to do

You spoke about challenges, looking back at 2024, Sir, what challenges would you say had tasked you to the point that you have to sit up and square up things without succumbing?

I think the biggest challenge for us last year was the shock of the lost of one of our own. I mean, we can’t jump into conclusion, even the circumstances of his demise, you know, could demoralize people and everyone working in this programme because he was attacked at his home. Not withstanding, we had to take a break and go back because you have to fight for the living. If you are alive, you have to also fight for those who are really helpless. I think that was our major challenge. Our second challenge was the fact that we could not really concentrate on our SIFTAS issues like I said, gender based violence issues in the communities, environmental issues which is part of the things we are going to do going forward. To concentrate on protecting the society, protecting communities against gender based violence this is where some of these issues happen. And we also dropped a bar in terms of our position in the programme from the first to second and so, this year, we want to go back to the leading position in the entire country. These were our three biggest challenges and they also fit into our goals for 2025 to see that we turn the tide of the challenges that we had faced

You talked about the intervention coming to an end this year and another programme entirely starting. Looking back at your performance, being first, then second and now aspiring to go back to first. Sir, how prepared is the state to key into the other programme?

Of course, very prepared, very very prepared. We are always confident that we have the backing of the Governor to do the right thing and ensure that we put the right mechanism in place to qualify the state. We are also very glad with the impact that we have made in the programme because – if you quantity the reach; the national reach of the programme which is about nine million to twelve million and what Nasarawa State had done, only as a state, will be equal to almost ten percent of the national impact. So, in terms of N-GCARES, in terms of this programme, Nasarawa State is the frontier and is the biggest player. That is why we want to be in the programme and continue to serve our people so that they will continue to benefit. That is part of what the Governor wants to do

As a youth, speak to the youth. Your advice to the youth ?

As a youth, I think you need to find the right mentors which is key. Second is emm… try to understand your purpose in life, what do you want to do and pursuing it vigorously. You have to be very deliberate about it of what you want and where you want to go to as a young man and pray that you will be in the right environment.