Govt must confront poverty, inequality – Amaechi: Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amechi, weekend said no meaningful progress could be made in Nigeria unless government addresses inequality and extreme poverty bedeviling the nation.
Amechi stated this while delivering the 49th Convocation lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN.
He lamented that in spite of government’s poverty alleviation programmes such as OFN, NEEDS, KEKE NAPEP, Nigerian is still bugged down by gripping poverty.
The minister said poverty was one of the teething problems Nigeria is faced with, adding that Nigeria, reputed to be giant of Africa, is now viewed as poverty capital of the world.
He said so many people are homeless and jobless which are some of the factors that give rise to insecurity in the form of insurgency and agitations like #EndSarsNow as well as agitations for self-government being canvassed by some sections of Nigeria.
He noted that hitherto poor nations like India and Brazil were able to curb poverty in their enclave, pointing out that in the past ten years, India was able to lift 273,000 of its citizens from abject poverty while Brazil between 2001 and 2009 was able to lift 21,000 of its citizens from acute poverty.