Minister accuses state governors of sinking Nigerians into poverty

The Federal Government has blamed state governors for not getting their priorities right thereby perpetuating poverty and hardship on the populace, especially in the rural areas.

Responding to questions on what the government was doing to address widespread poverty in the country, Minister of State, Finance, Clem Agba, who briefed journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, said governments at all levels needed to work together to ensure the delivery of dividends of democracy to the majority of the people, especially those in the rural areas.

The minister said his study of multi-dimensional poverty in the country showed that the real challenge was not only the availability of money but its application.

He told reporters that 72% of the poverty in Nigeria was found in the rural areas, which he said had been abandoned by the governors.

READ: North accounts for 87% of Nigeria’s poverty rate – report

Agba, who said the Federal Government had done its best on poverty alleviation, added that the priority of governors has not made the citizens to feel the impact of those initiatives and investment that had been done in the area.

“Right now, 70% of our people live in rural areas. They produce 90% of what we eat and unfortunately, 60% of what they produce is lost due to post harvest loss as 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 now take it to the urban areas, you find out that the prices are high due to supply chain disruptions, lack of infrastructure to take them there.

“I think from the Federal Government’s 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, where they have other airports so close to them, or governors now competing to build flyovers all over the place and we applaud, they should concentrate on building rural roads so that the farmer can at least get their products to the market,” the minister said.