Governors respond to FG, say insecurity, broken promises responsible for rising poverty

Nigerian governors have blamed rising poverty in the country on insecurity.

The governors also blamed the federal government for failing in its primary responsibility: to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.

This was in a statement by Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) Media Director, Abdulrazak Barkindo.

The NGF statement is a response to a comment by the Minister of State for

Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, who attributed Nigeria's poverty rate to the misplaced priority of governors.

He criticized governors for prioritizing building infrastructure such as bridges and airports in cities and state capitals over improving the lives of people in rural communities.< /p>

“Governors basically operate in their state capitals. And the democracy that we preach is about providing the greatest goods to the greatest number of people. our people live in rural areas, but governors don't work in rural areas,” he said.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) earlier announced that more than 133 million Nigerians live in poverty, this figure representing 63% of the country's population.

In its “Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index”, the NBS stated that more than half of the poor population cooks with dung, wood or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy.

The failure of responsible FG

Governors who called Agba's comment startling also said his claim was nonsense, without any empirical basis and far from the truth.

They said the federal government, which is responsible for the safety of lives and property, has been unable to fulfill this commitment with the people, allowing bandits, insurgents and kidnappers to transform the country into a field of massacres, mutilating and kidnapping people, in school market places and even on their agricultural lands.

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"Today, rural areas are insecure, markets are insecure, safe travel is unlikely, and life for ordinary people is generally harsh and brutal."

The Forum wondered how a helpless rural population can sustain a sustainable way of life of peace and harmony when their lives are prematurely cut off and they continually wallow in danger. And why a minister "whose government has been unable to provide security, law and order has the temerity to blame governors."

Edo, Akwa Ibom give reasons

In the statement, the Forum noted that Edo State and Akwa Ibom responded to the Minister's comment.

Akwa Ibom State said poverty and unemployment in a country are determined by its economic policy, which is set, normally, by the central government at the national level.

The state argued that the federal government cannot abdicate responsibility by blaming the states and asked how a state's economic policies affect the dollar that determines nearly every aspect of national existence.< /p>

Edo State unveiled the projects it has implemented which aim to alleviate the poverty of its people.

The Minister, the NGF said, visibly forgets about them (the projects) because many other states have implemented pro-poor programs in their area.

Broken promises

Governors highlighted the irony of Muhammadu Buhari's 2019 campaign message where he promised to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

“Today, records show that more than 130 million Nigerians live below the globally accepted poverty line of one dollar a day,” they said. "Under the current administration that Mr Clement Agba is minister, the national cash cow, the NNPC, had not handed over statutory allocations to states for several months."

They said the situation has forced governors to rely on other sources of revenue like the SFTAS program and other interventions anchored by the NGF, to fund state activities while funds budgeted for ministries federal bodies such as Agr...