The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) says a claim by the
federal government that states are responsible for the rise in poverty rate is
baseless and far from the truth.
The NGF said this in a statement by AbdulRazaque
Bello-Barkindo, director of media and public affairs.
Clem Agba, minister of state for
budget and national planning, accused state governors of giving more thought to
flyovers and airports than improving conditions in rural areas.
Agba said 72 percent of Nigeria’s poor citizens are in the
rural areas abandoned by the governors.
But the governors said the claim came as a surprise and
unnecessary.
“The tirade early this week by the minister of state for
budget and national planning Clement Agba, on the 36 Governors, where he blamed
them for the rising poverty index in the country came to the Nigeria Governors’
Forum as a surprise,” the statement reads.
“The minister got his message totally wrong. His attacks are
not only unnecessary, but they represent a brazen descent into selective
amnesia. It is also diversionary as far as the Governors are concerned.
“The minister who
should be responding to a question demanding to know what he and his colleague,
the ninister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, were doing
to ameliorate the hardship Nigerians attempted to defray the notion that rising
levels of hunger and lack were peculiar to Nigeria.
“True as that may be Agba went further to explain that their
government, through many of its social security programs, has been dedicating
resources to alleviating hardship, and then goes further to accuse state
governors of misdirecting resources to projects that have no impact on the
people.
“While rightly pointing out that 72% of the poverty in
Nigeria is found in the rural areas, the minister said that the rural populace
had been abandoned by governors.
“This assertion is not only preposterous and without any
empirical basis, but also very far from the truth. It is Clement Agba’s veiled
and deliberate effort as a minister, to protect his paymasters and politicize
very critical issues of national importance.”
Bello-Barkindo said the federal government’s dereliction of
duty and inability to secure lives and property is the main reason for high
rates of poverty in states.
“First and foremost, the primary duty of any government is
to ensure the security of lives and property, without which no sensible human
activity takes place,” he added.
“But the federal government which is responsible for the
security of lives and property has been unable to fulfil this covenant with the
people thus allowing bandits, insurgents, and kidnappers to turn the country
into a killing field, maiming and abducting people, in schools market squares
and even on their farmlands.
“This dereliction of duty from the centre is the main reason
why people have been unable to engage in regular agrarian activity and in
commerce.
“Today, rural areas
are insecure, markets are unsafe, travel surety of travels are improbable, and
life for the common people generally is harsh and brutish.
“The question is, how can a defenceless rural population
maintain a sustainable lifestyle of peace and harmony when their lives are cut
prematurely, and they wallow permanently in danger?
“How does a minister
whose government has been unable to ensure security, law and order have the
temerity to blame governors?”
Bello-Barkindo said it is wrong for the federal government
to abdicate itself from the raging poverty as reports showed 130 million
Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty.
“Two states, Edo
State and Akwa Ibom state, had promptly responded to the vituperations of the
minister,” he said.
“According to Akwa Ibom state, what determines poverty and
unemployment in a country is its economic policy, which is set normally by the
central government nationally. Akwa Ibom insists that the federal government
cannot abdicate its responsibility by blaming states and goes further to ask,
albeit rhetorically, how economic policies in a state drive the dollar which
determines almost every aspect of our national existence.
“In its response to
Clement Agba, Edo State, on the other hand, reeled out the projects the state
embarked upon which were targeted at alleviating poverty among its people. Agba
is perceptibly oblivious to them. Many other states have been implementing
pro-poor programs in their domain, and they are there for all to see.
“For example, it is the Federal Government that, in its
campaign message in 2019, promised to take 100 million Nigerians out of
poverty. Today, records show that more than 130 million Nigerians are living
below the globally accepted poverty line of a dollar a day.
“Under the current administration that Clement Agba is
minister, the national cash cow, the NNPC, had failed to remit statutory allocations
to states in several months.
“The situation had compelled governors to rely on other
sources of revenue like the SFTAS program and other interventions anchored by
the NGF, to fund states activities while monies budgeted for such federal
ministries as Agriculture, Rural Development and Humanitarian Affairs are not
being deployed in the direction of the people.
“So, where is the Minister getting his unverified facts and
figures from? It is important to mention here that only this week the house of
representatives asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar
Farouk, to quit office if she was not ready to do her work of alleviating
poverty in the land. This, in other words, is a resounding vote of no
confidence on the ministers among whom Agba serves.
“The Nigeria Governors’ Forum would like to state
categorically that it does not indulge in joining issues with the Federal
Executive Council, being a non-partisan organ. The NGF’s primary mandate is to
partner with all well-meaning institutions, concerns, MDAs, and individuals for
the progress of the Nigerian people.
“However, it is important to put on record the progress made
by state governors in the administration of their states, which have witnessed
tremendous progress in recent times.
“Governors have undertaken projects where they, in
conjunction with their people, deem them fit for purpose. Governors have today
shown greater responsiveness to the yearnings and aspirations of their people,
and these vary from one state to another.
“The opinion, therefore, of one minister, based on a survey
of 56,000 households in a country of 200 million people, can never diminish the
good work that 36 pro-poor-minded governors are doing for this country.
“Finally, it is important to admonish top government
functionaries like Clement Agba that the Nigerian people deserve answers from
even those who are appointed to serve them, and these finger-pointing
invectives on soft targets do not help the matter, only answers do.”
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