TheCable

Adewole Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), says poverty in Nigeria is caused by government policies. 

Speaking on Sunday at a presidential debate organised and hosted by Sonala Olumhense, Okey Ndibe, Farooq Kperogi, and Rudolf Okonkwo, Adebayo said poverty in Nigeria is not an accident.

In 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) national multidimensional poverty index report showed that 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.

“I am not surprised that we are the poverty capital of the world. We are the corruption capital of the world, and we are the robbery capital of the world,” Adebayo said.

“People have been robbed of their entitlement for 60 years — they are bound to be poor. The good thing is that poverty can leave this generation by stopping the robbery, making investments in the social sector, making sure that we invest in agriculture, investing in housing, invest in generating food employment.

“There is a way I can rewrite the current budget. If we rewrite the current budget, we will be able to lift at least 60 million people out of poverty. The most important thing here is that poverty is not an accident, it is a government policy that makes people to be poor. The country itself doesn’t want you to be poor. I travelled yesterday, the length that I travelled is bigger than Western Europe and I didn’t meet any government presence — in Taraba, part of Adamawa and part of Nasarawa.”

Adebayo added that poverty can be “pragmatically reduced and eliminated” in Nigeria by the government by prioritising social investment and making the right policies.