Yemisi Izuora
Presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has told Nigerians to ignore campaign promises of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), because they do not have what it takes to tackle poverty in Nigeria.
Ezekwesili, while addressing traders and artisans at Yaba market in Lagos, promised to invest in human capital to drive the nation’s economy if elected as president.
Last year, the Brookings Institution announced that Nigeria had surpassed India as the country with the highest number of extremely poor people.
Its report read in part: “According to our projections, Nigeria has already overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extremely poor in early 2018, and the Democratic Republic of Congo could soon take over the number 2 spot.
“At the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million. What is more, extreme poverty in Nigeria is growing by six people every minute, while poverty in India continues to fall.
“In fact, by the end of 2018 in Africa as a whole, there will probably be about 3.2 million more people living in extreme poverty than there is today.
“Africans account for about two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor and that If current trends persist, Africa will account for nine-tenths by 2030.”
Speaking on her plans, Ezekwesili said: “When Nigeria was named the capital of poverty in the world, the two parties (APC and PDP) had no clue on the way-out of poverty, but were busy on blame game. The process of governance cannot be delivered by the ruling class but by people.
“Our politics in ACPN is going to be politics of citizens and not politics of politicians because we don’t want to win as an individual, but we want Nigerians to win collectively. If I emerge Nigeria’s next President, human capital will be the new platform that will drive our economy.
“We must tackle poverty with a sense of urgency. Although, it is going to be tough to initiate it but no matter how tough it gets, we will create the right policies and invest in people. The nation can no longer afford more years of leadership failure.”