Boko Haram: US investigates aid to Nigeria
The United States government is set to investigate how past aid allocated to Nigeria and other countries has been utilised.
The latest move comes after President Donald Trump’s decision on January 20, 2025, to suspend all foreign aid for 90 days, citing concerns about global destabilization and misalignment with American interests.
In a post on its official X handle on Tuesday, the US Mission to Nigeria confirmed that monitoring systems are in place to track past assistance provided by the US government.
“Comprehensive monitoring and evaluation systems are in place to help verify that U.S. assistance reaches intended recipients,” the mission stated.
Also, the Mission condemned the ongoing violence perpetrated by Boko Haram in Nigeria, saying, “The United States condemns the violence and blatant disregard for human life perpetrated by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in Nigeria and the region.”
The statement further noted Boko Haram’s official designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US Secretary of State on November 14, 2013.
The designation aims to block the group’s assets, restrict its fundraising, prosecute its members, and prevent their travel to the United States.
Recall that Mr. Scott Perry, a United States Congressman had alleged that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been funding terror groups, including Boko Haram, through its financial aid programmes.
Perry, who is a Republican from Pennsylvania, made this shocking claim during the inaugural hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on February 13, 2025.
The session, titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,” focused on alleged misappropriations of taxpayer funds.
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“Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money, your money, $697 million annually, plus the shipments of cash funds in Madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Khorasan, terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding,” Perry said.
The subcommittee’s website had it that it will “actively work with President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency to root out waste, shore up vulnerable payment systems, and fully investigate schemes to defraud taxpayers.”
Perry further criticized USAID’s expenditure on Pakistan’s education program, which reportedly amounted to $840 million over the past two decades. He specifically pointed to the $136 million earmarked for the construction of 120 schools, claiming there was no evidence these schools were built.
“If you think that the programme under Operation Enduring Sentinel entitled Women’s Scholarship Endowment, which receives $60 million annually, or the Young Women Lead, which gets about $5 million annually, is going to women who, by the way, if you read the Inspector General’s report, is telling you that the Taliban does not allow women to speak in public, yet somehow you’re believing, and American people are supposed to believe, that this money is going for the betterment of the women in Afghanistan. It is not.
“You are funding terrorism, and it’s coming through USAID. And it’s not just Afghanistan, because Pakistan’s right next door.
“USAID spent $840 million in the last year, the last 20 years, on Pakistan’s education-related programme. It includes $136 million to build 120 schools, of which there is zero evidence that any of them were built. Why would there be any evidence? The Inspector General can’t get in to see them.
“But you know what? We doubled down and spent $20 million from USAID to create educational television programs for children unable to attend physical school. Yeah, they can’t attend it, because it doesn’t exist. You paid for it.
“Somebody else got the money. You are paying for terrorism. This has got to end.”
US President Donald Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform once called for the closure of USAID, saying it was a corrupt agency.
