Minister of State for Finance, Clement Agba has criticised
state governors over negative poverty index in Nigeria.
In taking a swipe on some of the governors, he said many of
them were busy competing among themselves to build bridges and other
infrastructures at the city centres, leaving the rural dwellers to their fate.
He said most of the infrastructures they build at the state
capitals had no direct bearing on alleviating the suffering of majority of the
masses both at the rural and urban communities.
His reactions came on Wednesday, while briefing State House
reporters on some of the deliberations that took place inside the Council
Chambers, after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by
President Muhammadu Buhari.
After noting that there was a slight improvement in the
gross domestic product indices for the 3rd Quarter of 2022, he was asked why
majority of Nigerians still experience excruciating pains and suffering as a
result of the inflationary trend and if measures are in place to check it.
He responded saying: “Question was, what is the Minister of
Finance and I doing with regards to hardship in Nigeria, right? So suggestion
is that both of us are the ones creating the hardship for us to resolve it.
“The governors basically are only functioning in their state
capitals. And democracy that we preach about is delivering the greatest goods
to the greatest number of people. And from our demographic, it shows that the
greatest number of our people who live in rural areas, but the governors are
not working in the rural areas.
“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 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 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 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 necessarily 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.
“And you find that 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
employs 70% of our people. So you can imagine how much progress we will make
when you find that there are roads, there is power in these rural areas.
“In terms of agriculture, you find out that the federal
government doesn’t have a land that they would plant, government has pushed for
the Anchor Borrowers programme and that is going on very well but the state
control lands states. 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 does not put food on the table.
“Like I always say, 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 actualization. So we need
to take care of the issues of food, nutrition, housing and clothing for our
people. Before we begin to think of how to go to the moon and begin to build
flyovers and airports in the state capital, that is the missing link which we
need to push so that we’ll be able to catalyze growth.
“But continuing to say federal government or my sister,
Zainab and I what are we doing? We are doing our parts. And I’m sure Wike told
you guys about monies that have been released over N500 billion to the
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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