Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has called for urgent action to prevent Nigerians from being decimated by poverty.
Mr. Atiku who stated this in a press release signed by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, was reacting to the recent report by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, which established that over 98 million Nigerians are living in multidimensional poverty.
He expressed fear that if solutions were not found and urgently too, the number could increase from 98 million to all 198 million Nigerians.
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in last elections, said the report is a frightening corroboration that poverty has become the fastest-growing venture in Nigeria over the last four years.
He alerted that: “There is an urgent and compelling need for institutions of the Nigerian state to understand that it is an appalling dereliction of duty to stand idly by and allow misery multiply in the populace.
Atiku noted that “This is no longer a grassroots problem. The failure of our economy over the last four years affects everyone from top to bottom.
He recalled that four years ago, Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s richest man, was worth $25 billion. “However, his net worth in 2019 is less than half that. He joins thousands of industrialists whose wealth and their ability to produce, has become eroded in recent years, and continues to do so.
“With the National Bureau of Statistics reporting a net job loss of over 6 million since 2015, we see that if industrialists have their wealth eroding, it affects their ability to create opportunities, which means that the trickle-down effect gradually dries.
Atiku maintained that the greatest national security threat Nigeria faces in 2019 is not Boko Haram/ISWAP or bandits but that “we have created the largest wave of poverty in human history. And the world is noticing, hence Foreign Direct Investment is shifting from Nigeria to Ghana, making Ghana the top recipient of FDI in West Africa in the last year.
He regretted that despite the report by the UNDP, Nigerian leadership has shown nonchalance as though to say that as long as they and their families are not amongst those 98 million extremely poor Nigerians, things can carry on as before.
“But that cannot be allowed to be the case. Those who have the ability, including the Council of State, all former leaders, elder-statesmen, and especially the other arms of government, must begin to collaborate for solutions, before the number increases from 98 million, to all 198 million Nigerians.
“We must remember that we are stakeholders in the Nigerian project. Stakeholders who must speak up for those 98 million people who are losing their voices to poverty,” he said.