Sadiya Umar Farouq: On the podium of honour

On Thursday, June 3, 2021, Blueprint Newspapers Limited rolled out its drums and opened its doors to celebrate its 10 years on the newsstand in Nigeria.
As our Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Alhaji Mohammed Idris noted in his welcome address at the 10th Anniversary/Impact Series and Awards, the event was a celebration of one decade of the Blueprint brand and “proudest moment as a corporate entity playing in the mainstream newspaper publishing environment for a decade ceaselessly”.
While His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr.) Yahaya Abubakar, Etsu Nupe and Chairman, Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers gave his blessings as the royal father of the day, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, endorsed Blueprint Newspapers’ one decade of “liberal, responsible, responsive, steady and patriotic journalism”.
The Guest Speaker and Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu spoke on, ‘Technological Innovation As Antidote to Election Rigging. ’
The event was also an opportunity for Blueprint Newspapers to, ‘identify with the crème of public officers who (are) impacting on nation-building in different spheres of trust and responsibility in Nigeria.’ It was along this direction that some Nigerians who have distinguished themselves on the political scene, national assignments or their chosen career were identified as recipients of various awards.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan led the pack of recipients as Blueprint Icon of Democracy in Africa for his role in deepening democracy and furthering the course of national unity. 15 governors, 3 ministers, 1 legislator, 1 professional, 3 corporate brands and 10chief executives of Federal Government agencies also received awards in various categories.
One of the awardees was the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, who received Blueprint Public Officer of the Year in Humanitarian and Emergency Intervention.
Like other recipients, Hajiya Sadiya’s award is a fitting recognition of about two years of uncommon dedication, unwavering commitment, determined focus and visionary leadership exhibited by a public officer in carrying out a national assignment as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Since her appointment in 2019, Hajiya Sadiya left no one in doubt about her desire to provide purposeful leadership under a new ministry.
Despite the enormous tasks and obvious challenges of managing a new ministry, she took the assignment head-on and focused on making a difference. As pioneer minister in a ministry with a huge responsibilities and wide mandate which include ‘developing humanitarian policies and providing effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions, ensuring strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response; and managing the formulation and implementation of fair focused social inclusion and protection programmes in Nigeria, the minister hit the ground running.
Instead of being deterred by the enormous tasks before her, she mobilized necessary resources to ensure the assigned task is achieved. Her obvious commitment has dispelled initial doubt about the necessity of creation of the ministry and her capacity to handle the tasks. She has not just redefined the concept of humanitarian and emergency intervention in Nigeria, she has also positioned Nigeria as a responsible and responsive nation on the global stage.
Rather than being overwhelmed by the major global health disaster like COVID-19 with its domestic implication for each country around the world and unprecedented humanitarian crisis, the minister maintained her cool and took charge.
And to the delight of her admirers and disappointment of her distractors, the minister left no one in doubt about her understanding of her role as number one national care-giver as well as the ministry being one-stop ministry for management of disaster and humanitarian challenge in Nigeria.
Hajiya Sadiya took the challenge and immediately, proactively mobilized stakeholders through coordination, collaboration and monitoring of relevant agencies and international organizations, donor agencies, NGOs in support of national objective of cushioning the effect of the emergency situation and its attendant impact on lives and livelihood.
Her efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic vindicated President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision in creating the ministry. It was also easy for the President to respond appropriately and give a clear directive on how to provide humanitarian services to the poor and vulnerable in the society.
As I have noted in this space before, the creation of the ministry which brought together relevant agencies under one roof namely, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, NCFRMI, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, North East Development Commission, NEDC ,Social Investment Programmes, SIP and Office of the Senior Special Assistant- Sustainable Development Goals has made humanitarian and emergency response of the Federal Government more coordinated and impactful.
It is also important to note that while providing leadership and coordination to agencies under her ministry, relief items were provided to disaster victims and for maintenance of IDPs. In executing the presidential directive, the minister, rather than an armchair leader issuing directives from her office has been on the scene at various intervention centres across Nigeria.
Some of her achievements include implementation of the National Social Investment Programmes which are all targeted at the poor and vulnerable people. One of such inherited programmme is N-Power aimed at addressing youth unemployment and improving their livelihood.
Another people-focused programme is Government Enterprise and Entrepreneurship scheme aimed at addressing the challenges of credit and financial inclusion for the over 37 million Nigerians at the base of the economic pyramid who have no opportunity to access loans. The programme which is executed by Bank of Industry (BOI) and supervised by the ministry, leverages extensively on data, technology, mobile phones and a network of 4, 325 agents deployed in all the 36 states and FCT.
The ministry under its flagship programmes –Trader Moni, Market Moni and Farmer Moni has continued to provide incremental loans of between N10,000 and N30,000 to traders, artisans, enterprising youth, agricultural workers and other micro-service providers
While not losing focus of the overall mandate and long-term objective of the ministry, the minister, since the outbreak the pandemic in early 2020, was hands-on in reaching out to the most vulnerable and mostly forgotten people. Her commitment and passion further brought to the fore, the importance of the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
As has been noted by other commentators, despite misinformation, disinformation, fake news about her and the ministry, especially during the heat of the pandemic lockdown, Hajiya Sadiya has continued to be a committed, strong-willed, determined, dedicated minister, who wields a caring hand over the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
Blueprint Newspaper’s recognition of the minister’s uncommon leadership, is a call for more work.