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Nigeria: Activists Request for Information on Fund Meant for Lead Poison Community

As part of pressure from the Follow The Money Team, the media and other CSOs on intervention funds released by the Nigerian President in January 2013 from the Ecological Funds Office for lead poison victims in Bagega community, Zamfara state, the Federal Ministry of Finance has released the Two hundred Million Naira meant for the Federal Ministry of Health as part of the approved Eight Hundred and Fifty Million Naira to be distributed amongst three MDAs respectively -  Ministry of Environment (Remediation); Ministry of Health (sustainable Health Plan) and Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (safer mining practices).

As part of pressure from the Follow The Money Team, the media and other CSOs on intervention funds released by the Nigerian President in January 2013 from the Ecological Funds Office for lead poison victims in Bagega community, Zamfara state, the Federal Ministry of Finance has released the Two hundred Million Naira meant for the Federal Ministry of Health as part of the approved Eight Hundred and Fifty Million Naira to be distributed amongst three MDAs respectively -  Ministry of Environment (Remediation); Ministry of Health (sustainable Health Plan) and Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (safer mining practices).

To ascertain the level of preparedness and plans on how the Health Ministry intends to spend this intervention fund, the Follow The Money Team has sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Permanent Secretary who is the chief accounting officer of the Ministry of Health to foster transparency and accountability from the federal at the community level.  

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It should be recalled that in 2010 during the lead poison outbreak, over 400 children died due to contamination of lead during artisanal gold mining operations because of high levels of lead in rock ore.

A social media campaign was launched by the Human Rights Watch and Follow The Money in December, 2012 that helped in putting pressure on the government and policy makers to immediately release the needed funds to save the lives of over 1500 children that needed urgent medical treatments.
 
“We hope that the Ministry of Health would uphold the rule of law and respond to our FOI request within one week” said, Hamzat Lawal, Co-Creator/Team Leader of Follow The Money.

‘When citizens have easy access to records of public funds meant for our communities, we can then hold government agencies and politicians accountable for their actions and involve the communities themselves in providing lasting solutions’. Lawal stressed.

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We hope to circulate concrete information online and off-line using various platforms to ensure people are kept informed on how funds are utilized.

Over the past three years, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an independent international organization for medical humanitarian aid has provided life-saving treatment to more than 2,000 children in Zamfara.  


For more information, please contact:

In Abuja, for Follow The Money, Hamzat Lawal (English): +234-0-806-869-9956 (mobile); or [email protected]

In Abuja, for Follow The Money, Oludotun Babayemi (English): +234-0-813-490-8561 (mobile); or [email protected]

The February 6, 2012 Human Rights Watch report, “A Heavy Price: Lead Poisoning and Gold Mining in Zamfara State,” is available at:

http://www.hrw.org/video/2012/02/06/heavy-price-lead-poisoning-and-gold-mining-zamfara-state
Follow The Money is a non-profit initiative of Connected Development [CODE] registered as an NGO by CAC

 

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