Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has commented on the poverty rate of Nigeria as regards the ranking of other countries in the world.
El-Rufai has said that Nigeria has the highest number of poor people compared to other countries all over the world. He stated that the country is currently going through trying times.
While speaking at the launch of the State Social Protection Policy on Tuesday, February 23, the Governor said that the programme was designed to help the poor and vulnerable citizens.
He also appealed to his colleagues and other political elites to stop the use of favoritism “slots” but make use the social register, when administering the g support. According to him, this will ensure that the programmes targeting the poor and vulnerable will actually get to the poor and vulnerable.
In his words;
“Nigeria is going through trying times. We have the largest number of poor people than any country in the world. Yet, whenever a programme is designed to help the poor and vulnerable, we resort to a slot mentality in which important people are allocated slots instead of targeting those poor and vulnerable that deserve it. This is unfortunate. We must move away from slot mentality and use our social register to offer targeted support to those that truly need it.
“I appeal to all my colleagues, the political elites to please drop this slot mentality and use the social register, so that, programmes targeting the vulnerable actually go to the poor and vulnerable. When we think of the poor and vulnerable, we must all remember that, the welfare of each one of us is bound up in the welfare of all of us.”
