2023: Why poverty reduction must be prioritised by political leaders- Push Africa
A Non-Governmental Organisation, Push Africa, on Friday, said it was imperative for political leaders, development partners and all stakeholders to prioritise poverty reduction across the country.
Ms Doris Egberamen, Co-founder of the organisation, said this in Gombe at the inauguration of the organisation’s nation-wide initiative “Do-One Thing Campaign” aimed at reducing poverty amongst citizens in the state.
Egberamen said the initiative was designed to advocate and support the Nigerian government’s effort to reduce the number of poor people in the country by half by the year 2030.
She said that though the country was faced with myriads of challenges, addressing poverty and tackling unemployment would help proffer solutions to some of the challenges in the country.
“As political activities towards next year’s elections heat up, PUSH AFRICA has launched a nation-wide initiative to redirect the attention of politicians and policymakers to the urgent challenges posed by escalating poverty in the country.
“Statistics show that about 95.1 million Nigerians, close to half of the country’s population, still live below the poverty line.
“This current situation is disturbing and if we are not deliberate about this issue, the statistics will keep getting worse and the consequences in terms of negative socio-economic impact and underdevelopment will keep rising.
“In view of the above, Push Africa will ensure that pledges were made by candidates on how to address the
“poverty pandemic” because doing that will help address other challenges Nigeria was facing, she said.
She listed some of the aims of the campaign to include promoting socio- economic justice for poor people in Nigeria, advocating that the government formulates and or adopts sustainable programmes and policies to help redress the poverty, unemployment, education, health and housing problems of the poor throughout the country.
“To organize fine minds to highlight and find solutions to the many problems facing the country’s poor, advocate economic and fundamental human rights for poor Nigerians,” she added.
The Chief executive of Push Africa also stated that as part of the campaign to reduce poverty in Gombe State, his organisation would organise a debate for the governorship candidates in Gombe State ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Egberamen, also the Chief Convener of the campaign, said the debate was part of efforts to bring good governance and accountability to bear on the contestants.
She said the debate would promote issue-based campaigns that would result in poverty reduction as well as improvement in the living standard of Nigerians living in the state.
She said that the debate would be held in the North-East states in October starting with Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and then Gombe.
Egberamen said the two-day event in Gombe would provide the platform for candidates to make commitments, “with which we will hold them accountable after elections”.
She said that poverty reduction would be prioritised during the engagements with political and other stakeholders in the state considering the statistics of poverty in the country.
Egberamen called on stakeholders, – political leaders, development partners, the media and members of the public to come together to support the campaign, to build a better Nigeria.
