HON.ABAYOMI SHEBA ESQ. SAYS NIGERIA GOVERNMENT MUST TACKLE POVERTY.

HON.ABAYOMI SHEBA ESQ. SAYS NIGERIA GOVERNMENT MUST TACKLE POVERTY.

BY MY COUNTRY AND I ONLINE NEWS .

Former acting chairman of the federal character commission Hon. Abayomi Sheba Esq says democracy and independence alone are not the ultimate answer to addressing the growing poverty levels in Nigeria.

However, Abayomi Sheba also says the democratic strides Nigeria has achieved will remain meaningless if citizens continue to live in abject poverty.

“Independence alone is not enough. Democracy alone is not enough People don’t eat democracy,” said Sheba, “We have to provide employment and put food on the table for our people. I think the time has now come for our country to look at strategies where the people’s sufferings can be reduced. Let us put our resources together to reduce this poverty, which our people have been suffering from a very long time.”   

In an interview with My country and I (MCNI), Sheba called on current leaders in Nigeria to implement measures to address the challenge of poverty in the country. He says that it is unacceptable for Nigerians to be poor, blessed as they are with enormous natural resources.

“Almost 64 percent of our people live below the poverty line, [and] that is a big concern,” said Sheba.  “We need to be looking at how we can transform our economic activities for the benefit of the people.  That is my plea to our leaders Nigeria.”

Hon. Abayomi Sheba also said governments have yet to use our  country’s natural resources in the effort to improve the living conditions of  the citizens.

Many State Government, he said, have yet to take serious and pragmatic steps to find solutions that might reduce poverty.

“We should definitely [be] finding strategies to ensure that whatever resources that are coming from minerals are put to use to reduce the poverty of our people,” Sheba said. “The issue has been the way the economic policies were being put in place. We need to change the way we have been doing things because things have not worked.