October 20, (THEWILL) – President and Chairman of the Boards of Directors, African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina has urged the Nigerian governing elite to rise up to the challenge of continental leadership thrust on it by fate.
Speaking at the 90th birthday of a former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon in Abuja on Friday, Adesina said history has thrust on Nigeria a responsibility it cannot run away from.
He said, “Nigeria is a global powerhouse. That is our responsibility, he said adding that the governments must work hard to make the country poverty and corruption free.
“Today, poverty is extremely pervasive in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as of 2022 estimated that ‘63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multi-dimensionally poor.’ It also states that over half of the population of Nigeria ‘cook with dung, wood, or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy. High deprivations are also apparent nationally in sanitation, healthcare, food security, and housing,” he said.
Akinwumi further stated that “multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of the people are poor” compared to 42% of people in urban areas. As we speak today, 65% of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35% (nearly 47 million) live in the South. The incidence of multidimensional poverty ranges from a low of 27% in Ondo to a high of 91% in Sokoto.
According to him, these extremely high levels of poverty have fuelled criminality, banditry, kidnappings, and armed robbery.
“A recent survey of the crime economy in Nigeria shows that the Northwest, Northeast and North Central have been devastated, with kidnappings becoming a default economy. From schools to farms, markets, towns, villages and communities, the level of suffering, helplessness and abandonment are, according to him, gutting out hope, and drowning communities and people in despair as economic activities plummet. Consequently, the criminal economy is upending the real economy of Nigeria.”
Akinwumi suggested how to address these challenges.
“To address the situation, urgent and comprehensive efforts are needed to restore security, and law and order, to protect lives, property, farmlands and to restore normalcy to traumatized zones, towns, villages, and communities. To stabilize and restore economic fortunes, education, health, social protection, and jobs for youth programs must be prioritized. Simultaneously, we must decisively tackle and reduce the burgeoning numbers of out-of-school children.”
