INVESTIGATION: Gombe At-Risk-Children Programme Marred By Irregularities: How Government Failed To Deliver On Promise

Dairus Samson

In November 2021, the Executive Governor of Gombe State, Alh. Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, promised to take 100,000 out-of-school children away from the street through the At-Risk-Children Programme (ARC-P).

The program, according to the Special Adviser the Special Adviser to the Governor on Human Capital Development, Barr. Sani Haruna was to see no fewer than 100,000 vulnerable street children between the ages of 7 to 24 in Gombe State who is living under very risky conditions, benefit from the various interventions rolled out under the ‘At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P)’.

Following the announcement, 500 At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P) Facilitators graduated after a three-week training held in Gombe facilitated by the Federal Government. The facilitators were to enjoy an N30,000 monthly allowance for the duration of the programme in order to ensure that they performed their functions properly without any hindrance.

Since then, Gombe State has received several accolades and commendations for being the first state to implement the programme in the Country.

Notable among them was the remark of former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the national stakeholders’ summit and formal launch of the ARC-P held at the Banquet hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where Governor Inuwa was specially invited to share the experience of Gombe in the implementation of the ARC-P

Prof. Osinbajo stated that ARC-P was, in his words

“…the next most important human development initiative that complimented the government’s effort of securing a fruitful future for the Nigerian youth.” After the Federal Government initiative of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

The alleged successes of the programme led to an overwhelming acceptance by other states such as Sokoto, Ekiti and Kaduna.

Beyond the accolades outside, however, was an even darker story. Facilitators complained of not being adequately compensated, the Ulamas who were promised school feeding for their Tangaya schools did not see even chalk being brought, and promises of school feeding for the Almajiri turned out to be only as tangible as their imaginations.

Having received an anonymous tip, I decided to visit a few of the Tsangayas myself and speak with the Ulama’s about the veracity of the claim.

Most of the Ulama’s choosing to speak under anonymity noted that since when the Governor called them for a meeting and shared with them his plans, to date, nothing has been done.

“…we met with, the Governor and he assured us that through the ARC-P Project, there will be school feeding as well as incentives for the Ulamas and also the parents of the children”

He claimed that they were promised N5,000 monthly as incentives for allowing their children to attend the classes at selected learning hubs.

However, in one of the Tsangaya schools I visited in Gombe Metropolis that has about 300 students, the Ulama noted that only 2 of the 7 Facilitators allocated to came to teach the Almajirai, though not always. He was quick to note that for close to 4 months, the Facilitators had stopped coming to attend to the pupils.

One of the ARC-P facilitators interviewed told of how, since January this year (2023), they (all the ARC-P Facilitators in Gombe) have not been paid.

“They started paying us around February 2022 and I don’t think I have been paid more than eight times” she added.

His story reflects the plight of about 400 facilitators across the state who have now absconded the learning hubs, leaving the pupils to their fate and back to the street.

Affirming the claim, a source within the ARC-P office, who chose to speak under anonymity affirmed the claim.

“Every month not less than 100 Facilitators will complain that they have not received their salaries”.

My source told me a grandiose scheme was deliberately designed and implemented to deprive about 100 Facilitators of salaries every month. Facilitators who were initially committed felt cheated and simply abandoned their posts.

The degradation was reflected even recently when goats and chickens that were supposed to be distributed to the Tsangaya were shared with the Facilitators.

“We heard that each facilitator was given 2 forms to bring to us. One of the forms was to provide 10-day-old Noella birds, including their feed and vitamins, while the other form was to provide 1 he-goat and a she-goat.  We decided to share the forms with the Facilitators, where they take one and we take another one.”

When I asked to see the Chicks and Goats he got, he told me that all of them had fallen sick and died “it is only the small goat that survived we had to kill it so as not to make any more loss.”

What Mallam Yakubu (real name withheld), did not know was that he was among the lucky few whose learning hub was even considered to benefit from the program.

In Akko LGA, Billiri and Balanga the story was not as palatable, as one of the Ulama claimed he has never been invited to any program, anywhere. A similar story is told of the Christian Orphanage Homes who were among the beneficiaries of the scheme.

“There was a time when one man visited us and told me about the program. He asked me about the number of children we have among other questions and I told him. Since then, I never heard from him or saw him again, up until a few months ago when someone claiming to be from Abuja called me to ask if I have been given anything.” He said in Hausa. Narrating on the state of the Tsangaya, he said;

“…in this small room about 15 of them sleep here…every one of them have their own mats. We just finished our morning lesson and the children have gone to look for what to eat.”

The staff of ARC-P too have not been left out of similar suffering as they too have claimed to not have been paid for over a year. According to one of the staff

“…we were given a slot and told to bring one person as a facilitator. Since they began paying the facilitators N30,000 our salaries were stopped.”

They claimed that the ARC-P office receives not less than N1 million as operational and running costs from the state government monthly, “this is in addition to whatever they are collecting from Abuja”. They added.

I reached out to Barr. Sani Haruna who was until recently, the Project Lead of ARC-P and Special Assistant on Human Capital Development, to get his reaction to these allegations.

Barr. Sani Haruna, who was the pioneer Project Lead of the program, noted that Gombe being a pilot state is bound to have been mistaken.

Acknowledging the declined payments of Facilitators, Barr. Haruna noted that Facilitators are required to submit a monthly report of at least 4 of the 7 ARC-P pillars.

“Those who were not paid did not submit their reports”.

He added that to his knowledge all pending remunerations have been paid up till February.

“The only months that have not been paid were March, April, and May…all the facilitators were told in their appointment letters that the payments were going to stop in May”.

He noted that he had cleared all debts, and will be willing to address any further concerns of those who have not received payments.

He however confirmed that he sought waivers from the head office for casual staff to be replaced with facilitators who had absconded since the state government did not make provision for casual staff.

“The state government was supposed to support us with staffing, however, due to a shortage of manpower, I had to employ casual staff and paid them between N10,000 to N20,000 per month.”

Adding that when the opportunity came to replace the ARC-P Facilitators, he thought it wise to replace the facilitators with the casual staff.

Reacting to the distribution which did not go round, Barr. Haruna

“…yes, I am aware of the distribution of livestock, which was initially for Caregivers and gatekeepers of Children at Risk who attended the learning hubs, unfortunately, however, we were dissolved on 29th May 2023, so I cannot account for those items that were shared.”

Accounting for some of the setbacks faced, Barr. Sani stressed that the scope of the project was not given. That they had embarked on a series of trials and errors. He added that several states like Sokoto had the programme scrapped completely, while other states like Kaduna had to restrict their programme to only auto mechanic training.

He further asserted that the lack of reliable data was also a challenge.

“When I assumed office, I was under the impression that we will find those At-Risk-Children in clusters like the Tsangaya and orphanages, however upon assuming office, it was a different case…I walked into the market one time at about 12 midnight and saw hundreds of Children sleeping on the floor, those Children are also at Risk, several children are at brothels and cannot go to school because of stigma. So At-Risk-Children are beyond the scope of just Almajiri and orphans.

When approached, the ARC-P office declined to speak to me despite introducing myself as an independent journalist, they requested an official mail of the questions from a verified publisher before scheduling a meeting for the following day.

The meeting was eventually held at the ARC-P office Gombe with Muhammad Umar Faruk, who is the current Overseer along with other members of his staff.

Mr. Faruk noted that ARC-P is a donor-driven program and not a statutory parastatal of government. Hence, the funding received was from donor, and the donors hold a large sway in determining what the funds received are used for.

Mr. Faruk highlighted that the issues revolving around finance, procurement, and monitoring and evaluation did not fall under the purview of the state office, but in Abuja.

“Initially, we use to collect the reports from the facilitators and we sent a schedule of payment for only two months, after that, the National Office took over…they will only send us the list of those who have sent their report.”

He, however, confirmed that several facilitators have not been paid, and shared an unsigned document that showed 236 facilitators who had had issues of non-payment between January 2022 and January 2023. He also confirmed that the salaries of ARC-P facilitators between February to May are yet to be paid.

Mr. Faruk also confirmed that Caregivers and gatekeepers were to be incentivized under the ARC-P program with monthly stipends. Unfortunately, the first line of incentivization was the distribution of 1,500 goats and 5,000 Noella birds.

He noted that the state office had to devise a means of distribution by telling the 500 facilitators to select 1 beneficiary from their hubs. He added that the office did not directly deliver the items to the beneficiaries but to their facilitators.

Reacting to claims that there was promise of feeding for the Children at their learning hubs, Mr. Faruk stated that truly there was such a plan. He added that the Gombe office had even received a consignment of 450 pieces of coolers, along with 2,000 pieces of plates and spoons, as well as 40,000 books, but the items were not distributed.

Mr. Faruk revealed that failure to get food vendors and lack of approval from the state government to deliver the items were part of the reasons the items were kept in store.

Sharing some of the successes of the Programme, Mr. Faruk noted that they were able to successfully train some persons in the different welding crafts by TOPACO, Gombe.

Mr. Faruk took me around the office and showed me locally, made wheelbarrows and charcoal stoves that were made by graduands of the lifestyle training.

A source in the office revealed that those items were bought on the eve of the program and presented to Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, to show that they were working.

When asked as to why the Governor’s target of mopping 100,000 At-Risk-Children off the street hasn’t been met, Mr. Faruk revealed that getting access to reliable data on the children had been a huge cog in ARC-P’s wheel of progress.

So far, the ARC-P office noted that it has identified and onboarded only 25,000 At-Risk-Children onto their database.

At-Risk-Children Programme was created by the Federal Government under the office of the former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, as an initiative of the Social Investment Programme (SIP) headed by Maryam Uwais.