Nigeria’s President Yemi Osinbajo said Wednesday that about 110 million Nigerians (about two-thirds) of the populace live below poverty baseline.
Osinbajo who said his projection was based on available statistics, rued what he called extreme poverty in some parts of Nigeria.
He spoke at the Presidential Villa Abuja while granting audience to members of the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies led by their President, Maj. Gen. Lawrence Onoja (rtd.).
“When you look at the economic and social policies, and you look at the level of illiteracy in some parts of the country, some are extremely bad and some with cases of about 80 per cent or 90 per cent of children out of school, and other cases of unimaginable decayed infrastructure,” he said.
In his view, the situation is blame able to the misalignment of governance with the needs and aspirations of the people.
the Vice President said some of the past polices and planning including budgeting of government did not reflect the needs and the conditions of the majority of the people, adding that past planning, policy formulation and budgets were not accountable to the people.
He challenged his visitors to come up with solutions on how to formulate policies that would impact positively on the lives of the people.
In his remarks, Onoja expressed the group’s support for the ongoing anti-corruption war of the present administration, urging President Muhammadu Buhari not to stop at recovering looted funds but to ensure that looters were jailed.
“We fully support the statement credited to the Sultan of Sokoto and Chairman of our Heritage Council, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, that all those found guilty of corruption should not only have their assets seized or and forfeited to government but also face jail sentences,” the retired general said.
He added, “We need institutional framework to prevent graft and public theft. Therefore, we support Buhari administration’s move to do forensic audit of all revenue-generating agencies namely NNPC, CBN, Customs etc.
“There should also be adequate funding for anti-corruption agencies. The courts should also be empowered to prosecute fund offenders.”
