APC leader slams Buhari on insecurity, poverty

An All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Salihu Lukman, Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, may have covertly slammed President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC government on the rising insecurity and poverty in the country. He advocated urgent implementation of initiatives for poverty reduction as means of containing insecurity in Nigeria.

Lukman in a statement in Abuja attributed the high rate of crimes in the country to increasing poverty of Nigerian citizens.

The NGF DG decried that Nigerians are confronted by an existential crisis that can only be solved by moving citizens out of poverty. Lukman stated” “one of the instruments for this migration to prosperity is the recommendation of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) which defined poverty beyond financial capacity to include shelter, health, education, and jobs.” He advocated that state governments must be empowered to collaborate in implementing poverty reduction policies to achieve national targets.

It was highlighted that the Presidential Advisory Council led by Professor Doyin Salami had revealed that 2% of Nigeria’s arable lands are being underutilized. The NGF DG was of the view that such statistics can be overturned by the state governments which are the custodians of the Land Use Act.

Lukman may have covertly expressed dissatisfaction with the poverty reduction initiatives of the Buhari administration which have more or less simultaneously been wasting funds and recycling poverty in the country.