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, who made this disclosure during a meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa on Monday, 4 September, 2023 in Abuja, also 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.
According to the minister, 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,” she said.
In his response, Gen. Musa assured the minister of the commitment of the Nigerian military to support her towards achieving the mandate of the ministry, just as he also acknowledged the link between military operations and humanitarian aid.
It was gathered that the agenda of the meeting was to forge a formidable alliance between humanitarian efforts and the military.
