Tinubu’s Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu has been in the eyes of the public lately for the wrong reasons, following investigations into an alleged N585m fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Opposition parties and other anti-corruption crusaders have called for Edu’s sacking, after a memo she issued, instructing the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr Oluwatoyin Madein, to pay N585m into the private bank account of a project accountant in her ministry, Bridget Oniyelu, was leaked on Saturday.
On Monday, President Bola Tinubu suspended Edu, while ordering the EFCC to probe the humanitarian ministry.
As the scandal unravels, here is what Premium Politics knows about the embattled minister:
A medical doctor turned politician, Beta Edu, was born on October 27, 1986, in the Abi Local Government Area of Cross Rivers State.
She had her secondary education at the Federal Government Girls College, Calabar in 2001, and her first degree in medicine and surgery, from the University of Calabar, in 2009.
Edu also had a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the same institution, and a Doctor of Public Health from Texila American University.
She became the youngest person, appointed as Special Adviser on Community and Primary Healthcare, to the Executive Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, in 2015.
Also in 2020, the medical guru was appointed Chairman, of the Cross River State COVID-19 Taskforce, and in August of the same year, Edu was appointed National Chairman of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum.
Edu, a Fellow of the Royal School of Public Health and the African Institute of Public Health Professionals, was appointed the National Woman Leader of the All Progressives Congress in March 2022. The youngest ever, to hold the position.
However, her leadership qualities and strategic campaigns during the 2023 electioneering campaign, allowed her to be nominated as a minister, by President Bola Tinubu, in July 2023.
Consequently, in August 2023, Edu was sworn in as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. Making her the first female Minister from Cross River State, and the youngest minister, at the Federal Executive Council.
