Poverty: Govs mum as FG accuses them of operating only in state capitals - TrendyNewsReporters Poverty: Govs mum as FG accuses them of operating only in state capitals - TrendyNewsReporters
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Poverty: Govs mum as FG accuses them of operating only in state capitals

Poverty: Govs mum as FG accuses them of operating only in state capitals

The Federal Government, yesterday, blamed the high level of poverty in the country on state governors, who it said to operate only in state capitals, and pay more attention to building flyovers and airports, rather than improvement of life in the rural areas.

The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, made the allegation while fielding questions from State House Correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Efforts to get governors to speak on the allegation through the Nigerian Governors Forum, Northern Governors Forum, Southern Governors Forum and other platforms did not yield dividends at press time last night.

On November 18, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, Report said that 133 million (63 per cent) of Nigerians were suffering from multi-dimensional poverty, with children constituting more than half of poor people in the country.

This means that two out of every three Nigerians live below poverty line and experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations in terms of health, education, living standards, work and shocks.

According to the report, 85 million of the 133 million people living in poverty are in the North; 47 million; in the South, while 66.5 million are children

Rural areas have 72 per cent of people living in poverty “The Minister said that 72 percent of the poverty in Nigeria is found in the rural areas, which he said had been abandoned by governors, who preferred to function in the state capitals.

‘FG has done its best to alleviate poverty

Claiming that the Federal Government had done its best on poverty alleviation, he regretted that there was no reflection of the amount of investment that had been done in the area.

The Minister accused state governors of concentrating on building flyovers, airports and other projects that were visible only in the state capitals, rather than investing in areas that directly uplift the standard of living of the people in the rural areas.

Agba pointed out that while states are in charge of land for agriculture, they do not invest in them for the desired effect on their rural citizens.

He, therefore, advised state chief executives that instead of focusing attention on the building of sky-scrappers, flyovers, and bridges, they should focus on initiatives that could pull the majority of the people out of poverty.

What FG is doing

On what the Federal Government, especially the Ministry of Finance, was doing to cushion the hardship and poverty Nigerians were facing, the minister said: “The question was, what is the Minister of Finance and I doing with regard to hardship in Nigeria, right?

”So, the suggestion is that both of us are the ones creating the hardship and should resolve it. In the first place, I just returned this morning from Brussels were 106 countries — 27 countries from Europe and 79 countries from the Organization of African Caribbean and Pacific countries — met.

”What was the deliberation on? Basically on what the world over intends to do around the food and energy crisis.

“I think it’s always good for us to put things in the right perspective. Like I say to people, when you say government, we should be able to specify which government we are talking about.

“Is it the Federal Government? Is it state government or is it local government because we all have different responsibilities?

“It is for this reason that we, last year, started some work on the multi-dimensional poverty index, for which we recently released the report and it was launched by the President.

“In the past, we had always looked at monetary poverty. But poverty has different pieces, intensity, and causes.

”For this reason, I went around the 109 senatorial districts in Nigeria to carry out surveys and to be able to say specifically where this hardship is.

“The result clearly shows that 72 percent of poverty is in rural areas. It also showed clearly that Sokoto State is leading in poverty with 91 percent. But the surprising thing is Bayelsa is the second in terms of poverty rating in the country.

“So, the issue is not about the availability of money. It has to do with the application of money.

“In the course of working on the National Development Plan, we looked at previous plans and asked why they didn’t do as much as was expected. We also looked at the issues of the National Social Investment Programme.

“At the federal level, the government has been putting out so much money but not seeing so much reflection in terms of money that has been put in alleviating poverty, which is one of the reasons the government also put in place the national poverty reduction with growth strategy.

“But if the Federal Government puts the entire income that it earns into all of this without some form of complementarity from the state governments in playing their part, it will seem as if we are throwing money in the pond.

‘Govs only functioning at state capitals’

“The governors basically are only functioning in their state capitals. And the democracy we preach about is delivering the greatest good to the greatest number of people.

“And from our demographic, it shows that the greatest number of our people live in rural areas but the governors are not working in the rural areas.

“Right now, 70 percent of our people live in rural areas; they produce 90 percent of what we eat. And unfortunately, 60 percent of what they produce is lost due to post-harvest loss and it does not get to the market.

“When we’re talking about food prices like I mentioned right now as driving inflation, prices of food at the farm gates are low.

“But when you take it to the urban areas, the prices are high due to supply chain disruptions and lack of infrastructure to take them there.

“I think from the Federal Government side, we are doing our best. But we need to push that rather than governors continuing to compete to take loans to build airports that are not necessary when they have other airports so close to them, competing to build flyovers all over the place, they should concentrate on building rural roads so that the farmers can at least get their products to the markets.

“If they do that and with the new policy in the National Development Plan that talks about taking power to the rural areas, especially of out-grid power that can easily be put, you begin to attract industries to those areas for value addition.

“UNIDO report shows us in terms of employment, the MSMEs employ 70 percent of our people. So you can imagine how much progress we will make when there are roads and power in these rural areas.

States control lands

“In terms of agriculture, the Federal Government doesn’t own land. Federal Government has pushed for the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and that is going on very well but the states control lands.

”They are the ones to provide land for agriculture. They are not investing in that. They would rather build skyscrapers in a city where people will see and clap but the skyscrapers do not put food on the table.

“If you look at the Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, he says you have to take care of the basic needs of individuals first before you begin to talk about self-actualisation.

“So, we need to take care of the issues of food, nutrition, housing and clothing for our people before we to think of how to go to the moon, build flyovers and airports in the state capitals. That is the missing link, which we need to push so that we’ll be able to catalyze growth.

“I’m sure Governor Nyesom Wike told you guys about monies released, over N500 billion to oil-producing states and I’ve seen some disclaimers from the states saying it is ‘small.’

”Small money they are getting on a monthly basis, and some are giving some half-truths of what they have received. We need to hold them accountable, so, that together we all can grow our economy.”

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