•Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State
A coalition of civil society organisations in Ebonyi State has dismissed the Ebonyi State government’s defence over its alleged failure to access a $27 million World Bank performance-based grant, insisting that the state did not meet the governance benchmarks required under the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme.
The HOPE Governance Programme is a World Bank-supported initiative designed to strengthen governance and public financial management across Nigerian states by rewarding those that meet independently verified reform milestones with performance-based grants rather than loans, reports Daily Independent.
The coalition, comprising the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Human Rights Action Group and the Good Living Initiative (GLIN), was responding to a statement issued by the Special Assistant to Governor Francis Nwifuru on Documentation, Dr. Boniface Nwankwo, who had accused the groups of attempting to mislead the public and undermine the administration’s achievements.
The disagreement stems from a press conference organised by the coalition last week, during which it alleged that Ebonyi failed to qualify for a $27 million grant available under the World Bank’s HOPE Governance Programme because it did not satisfy independently verified governance performance indicators.
In his response, Nwankwo rejected the allegation, describing it as “a deliberate attempt by political opponents to misinform the public and undermine the achievements of Governor Francis Nwifuru’s administration.”
He argued that the state had, within the past three years, attracted several federal and international interventions under the People’s Charter of Needs agenda, including the Nigerian Army Training Depot in Amasiri, the Nigerian Navy Secondary School in Izzi Local Government Area, the proposed University of Aeronautics, a ₦12 billion Productive Use of Energy grant, a $25 million intervention under the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria (SPIN) Programme, and an ₦8.1 billion African Development Bank Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) intervention.
According to him, “the volume of grants and strategic investments secured under Governor Nwifuru’s administration demonstrates its commitment to development and contradicts claims of poor governance.”
However, in a detailed rebuttal issued yesterday, the coalition maintained that the government’s response failed to address the fundamental issue raised by its earlier statement.
It argued that the programmes cited by the government were unrelated to the World Bank’s HOPE Governance Programme, which it described as a performance-based financing initiative that rewards states based on independently verified governance reforms.
“We at the Civil Society Coalition wish to completely disagree with the government’s lines of thought, reasoning and arguments as we reiterate that our thoroughly-researched position is not borne out of politics or political interests but a genuine concern for a better and more prosperous Ebonyi State,” the coalition said.
It added that the state government had committed “a monumental category error” by relying on federally allocated projects and unrelated interventions to defend what it described as its inability to satisfy the governance standards required for the World Bank grant.
According to the coalition, “the response of the Ebonyi State Government does not in any way address the gross governance lapses and failures revealed by the World Bank HOPE Governance Assessment Programme.
“The central issue remains whether governance performance in Ebonyi State met the World Bank’s independently verified benchmarks. The answer is NO! And it remains NO!”
The groups maintained that the HOPE Governance Programme is distinct from conventional development interventions because access to its funding depends on measurable institutional reforms in areas such as public financial management, transparency, accountability, basic education and primary healthcare.
They stressed that eligibility is determined through an independent verification process rather than by the number of projects executed or announced by a state government.
“The substantive public policy question remains: why was Ebonyi unable to secure any of the announced performance incentives while neighbouring states such as Abia, Enugu and Imo qualified under one or more independently verified results?” the coalition asked.
“It requires the release of Ebonyi’s HOPE GOV participation records, the Independent Verification Assessment, the specific results the state achieved or failed to achieve, and the reforms being implemented ahead of the next assessment cycle.”
The coalition further argued that references to the Nigerian Army Training Depot, the Navy Secondary School, the proposed University of Aeronautics, the SPIN Programme, the Productive Use of Energy initiative and the African Development Bank’s WASH intervention could not substitute for compliance with the governance benchmarks assessed under the HOPE programme.
“These are separate programmes with different objectives, funding arrangements and eligibility criteria. Their existence neither proves nor disproves compliance with the World Bank’s governance performance benchmarks,” it stated.
The civil society groups also cited previous assessments by BudgIT and official fiscal documents, alleging that Ebonyi continues to face governance challenges relating to public financial management, budget implementation, procurement oversight, debt management and transparency.
According to the coalition, such indicators are among the criteria considered by development partners in assessing institutional capacity and governance performance.
It therefore urged the Ebonyi State government to publish its participation records under the World Bank programme, including the Independent Verification Assessment, indicators achieved, indicators missed and corrective measures being implemented before the next assessment cycle.
“The most constructive response at this stage is not to dismiss legitimate public concerns as politically motivated. Rather, it is to publish the evidence,” the statement read.
The coalition maintained that its intervention was driven by the need to ensure that Ebonyi remains competitive in attracting performance-based development financing that strengthens healthcare, education, public financial management and institutional capacity without increasing the state’s debt burden.
It added that the debate should not be viewed through a political lens but as part of broader efforts to promote accountability and improve governance outcomes.
As a final challenge, the coalition invited the Nwifuru administration to a public debate on the issues raised, urging the government to “learn from its past mistakes and be strategically positioned to do better in the next cycle.”
