PRESIDENT, African Development Bank Group (ADBG), Akinwumi Adesina, on Saturday lamented the poor living condition of Nigerians, saying that with the abundant wealth of natural resources, Nigeria’s poverty situation is unacceptable.
He insisted that there must be accountability for better lives for all Nigerians, regardless of their levels of income, saying there cannot and should not be a Nigeria for the rich, and another Nigeria for the poor.
While he maintained that though the Federal Government has been taking bold steps to implement social programmes capable of alleviating poverty and reduce the number of poor people, Nigerians deserve wealth and not poverty. Adesina who stated this during a lecture, Building a New Nigeria: Imperatives for Shared Prosperity”, which he delivered at the 2020/2021 combined graduation ceremony of the American University of Nigeria, (AUN) Yola, Adamawa State, disclosed that from diagnostic and testing centres, access to vaccines, and hospital infrastructure, the health care systems were overwhelmed just as he commended the spirited efforts of governments at all levels and the private sector, in mobilising resources to tackle the pandemic.
According to him, Nigeria is blessed with rich diversity of people, cultures, religions, mineral resources, oil, and gas, rich biodiversity, which should make the country the envy of the world. He described Nigeria’s diversity as its strength and not its problem as being discussed in some quarters, saying that rather than unite, “we become splintered, with each entity believing that, somehow, it is better without the other.”
Taking a cue from the economic transformation and growth of Singapore, Adesina observed that like Nigeria, Singapore a diverse, multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-religious society, made up of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasians has forged a unified identity that has powered its extraordinary economic progress and development.
“At its independence in 1965, Singapore’s per capita income was just $517 compared to $1,400 for Nigeria at its independence in 1960. Today, the story is different. The per capita income of Singapore is now $60,000. Today, the per capita income for Nigeria is $2,250.
Singapore, according to Adesina, now ranks fourth in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, with massive wealth and prosperity for its people. Speaking further, Adewumi urged the Federal Government to address fundamental reasons for agitations across the country, pointing out that the government must listen, understand, remove prejudices, and allow national dialogues, without preconditions.
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