Sept. 5, 2023

The Federal Government has unveiled plans to include families of wounded and fallen soldiers in the national social register and its poverty alleviation programmes.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Betta Edu, made this known during a meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa on Monday in Abuja.

Edu expressed the need to support the military families.

“We want to expand our social register to accommodate military personnel that have either been wounded or affected by war even soldiers that left their families behind.

“We need this data from the military so that we can have them captured under the social register” she said.

The minister said, she was at the defence headquarters to solicit the support of the Nigerian military to tackle humanitarian crises across the country.

“Alleviating humanitarian crises and poverty is top most on President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

“Our preference is to discuss humanitarian crises across the nation and the need to collaborate with the military to prevent more persons coming under the humanitarian bracket.

“We also should be able to reach out effectively to those who are affected by humanitarian crises wherever they are.

“So that our humanitarian workers should be able to reach the people wherever they are with the support of the military” she said.

Responding, Gen. Musa, assured the minister of the commitment of Nigerian military to support her towards achieving the mandate of the ministry.

Musa who acknowledged the link between military operations and humanitarian aid, noted that, successful organisations directly benefits their military efforts.

The defence chief therefore expressed to the humanitarian ministry for considering the military community on the task.

While assuring the minister of his unwavering commitment towards her humanitarian mission, the defence chief was optimistic that the collaboration will yield positive results.

The agenda of the engagement was to forge a formidable alliance between humanitarian efforts and the military.

The aim is to urgently curb the crisis growth and offer swift aid to those affected. (NAN)