Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
•His govt weaponising poverty ―Atiku •Current situation, biggest trouble since 1914 ―El-Rufai •Many elite out of touch with situation of poverty ―Emir Sanusi
FORMER vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Bola Tinubu administration of weaponising poverty in the country.
While Atiku stated that the rising poverty in the country was deliberate, a former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, described the rising poverty in the country as the biggest trouble Nigeria has ever been in since 1914.
They both made the statements during a public lecture to mark the 60th birthday of former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday.
Atiku explained that “growing up in the north, the most prosperous city or state was Kano State. As soon as I finished my secondary school, my first location was Kano State. I never saw people sleeping outside, then. There were no bridges or flyovers.
“I never saw people sleeping outside or outside the shops in Kano State, but recently, I saw that people were all over the state sleeping under the bridge or on the streets
“These people are driven out by poverty and insecurity. There is a state agency in Kano responsible for providing support to such people and they started doing their work and enlightening people and removing people from under the bridges and outside on the streets.
“What happened? They were called to Abuja and they were told to stop it. That is why I said I wanted to amend the topic of today to add state weaponisation of poverty,” he stated.
Atiku further said, “This particular government is weaponising poverty. You may call me a conspirator, you may call me anything, and that is why we are in this alliance to make sure we don’t allow them to continue weaponising poverty. Of course, one of our star conspirators is Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
“Therefore, we are here to wish you many happy returns, we will continue to conspire with you to make sure we minimise poverty and we don’t use state machinery to weaponise poverty,” he added.
Though El-Rufai did not agree that politicians are deliberately using poverty as a weapon against the people, he accused the electorate of voting for people without the capacity to turn the fortunes of the country around.
“So, here we (Ameachi and I) are back together because Nigeria is in its biggest trouble since 1914. We are together working, conspiring to build a coalition to take Nigeria back on track because it is off track,” he said.
He further explained: “I don’t think so. Poverty weaponises itself if allowed to exist. That is what has happened in Nigeria. I don’t think politicians are that smart to even sit and weaponise poverty.
“For me, having been in private sector and public service and having been a keen observer of our political deterioration, I believe that the problem that we have, which I think Governor Babangida referred to, is that we just get incompetent people and we hand over leadership to them.
“They don’t know what to do. Most of them don’t really know what to do. They just know how to grab power but don’t know what to do with it.”
He then challenged the electorate to vote for only those with the capacity to move Nigeria forward, saying “I think the key challenge for Nigerians in 2027 is really to look at those that are offering themselves for leadership and pick those that have the competence, capability, capacity and commitment to make Nigeria move forward.”
Also speaking at the event, the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said that many members of Nigeria’s elite are out of touch with the reality of poverty in the country.
This was just as he stated that the real leadership must be rooted in empathy and service to the people.
Sanusi said it wasn’t until he became Emir that he saw firsthand the harsh conditions many Nigerians live in.
According to him, “Many of the elite in Nigeria do not know what poverty is. As an economist, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, I see the numbers. I did not know poverty until I became Emir.
“You go to the village and see the water they drink, the houses they live in, the two-block classrooms without roofs.”
He then asked, “Do we love the people, or do we just love ruling over them? What are our priorities?”
He added: “We make overheads and underpasses for ourselves in the cities, while in the rural areas they cannot reach hospitals; we are in crisis. ‘How do we get out?’ should be our focus.”
On his part, the celebrant, Amaechi, thanked his guests for coming, noting that he deliberately chose the topic “Weaponisation of Poverty as a Means of Underdevelopment: A Case Study of Nigeria.”
The former Minister of Transportation lamented that there was too much hunger in the land, a development that saddens his heart.
Amaechi charged the masses to stop voting leaders based on religion or ethnicity but people with credibility that will bring development to Nigeria.
Adding to the discourse, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf, stated that many issues treated in Nigerian hospitals are not medical but stem from deeper social and economic problems.
He blamed the country’s widespread poverty on corruption and poor governance, warning that nothing would change unless citizens take responsibility at the ballot box.
“Unless citizens live up to their responsibilities and vote for what is right,” Yusuf said, “we will keep facing the same challenges.”
The event was attended by former governors, ministers, chief of army staff, chief of air force staff among many others.
READ ALSO: Rising poverty endangers Nigeria’s existence — SMBLF
[ad_1]
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
[ad_2]
Comments are closed.