WORSENING POVERTY RATE IN NIGERIA:

POVERTY: YAPJEN CALLS FOR CORROBORATIVE ACTION BETWEEN GOVT, PRIVATE SECTOR AND CSO.


A Global Goals Advocacy Organisation, Youth Advocates For Peace Justice And Empowerment Network (YAPJEN) has called for a concerted effort between the government, private sector players and civil society organisations over Nigeria's worsening poverty.


The group made the call through a joint statement issued by its Global Goals Ambassadors in Abuja namely Amb. Timothy Nwachukwu LLB, Amb. Francis Chukwuyekwe and Hon. Ndife Scofield while reviewing the efforts of the federal government towards the attainment of Global Goals 1.


Amb. Timothy Nwachukwu revealed that Nigeria is endowed with enormous human and material resources to be one of the most prosperous nations in the world and is blessed with very rich soil that bears great potentials for all forms of agriculture, as well as massive oil and gas reserves that accords her an enviable position in the comity of nations.


He reiterated that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Multidimensional Poverty Index revealed that over 133 million Nigerians live in poverty, adding that the figure represents 63 per cent of the nation’s population. while World Bank, in its Poverty and Prosperity Report revealed that Nigeria contributed three million people to global extreme poverty, while the country is “home to a large share of the global extreme poor.”


On his part, Amb Francis Chukwuyekwe expressed sadness that despite the efforts of the present government through its various initiatives such as conditional cash transfer, trader money among others and the humongous debts that the outgoing adminstration is leaving behind, available report indicates that a greater number of Nigerians has slid into poverty since 2015 with (86 million poor Nigerians resident in the North, while nearly 47 million poor Nigerians live in the South.


He stated that It is common place that poverty eradication programmes are jettison immediately the administration that initiated them exits the corridors of power. Hence, many programmes and policies in are not followed-through until yield dividends the expected dividends.on Nigeria's President Elect and Governors Elect across the nation to prioritise efforts towards the eradication of poverty in Nigeria's rural areas as 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population live in rural areas, yet these areas are home to 80 per cent of poor people.


Meanwhile, Hon. Ndife Scofield expressed deep worry because Nigeria’s poverty situation is very peculiar when Justaposed with other developing countries as Nigeria earned over US $300 billion from the sale of petroleum in the last three decades of. Yet, over 65% of her citizens live below the absolute poverty lines of $ 1 per day.


He opined that to consign poverty at least in its alarming dimensions to history, poverty eradication and the actualisation of the United Nations Global Goals one must embraces the efforts of government at all levels; Non-governmental organizations, individuals and corporate bodies.