For the government and people of Osun, the May 4, 2020 ranking of the state as the third among the states in Nigeria with the lowest poverty rate by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) could not have come at a better time. It is heartwarming and rejuvenating to the over three million estimated population of the state. The state governor, Adegboyega Oyetola and his team are no doubt elated by the state’s new ranking.
Computed between September 2018 and October 2019 by the NBS and published on May 4, 2020, the agency did not just arrive at its findings before eventually making it a subject of public knowledge and consumption. Among other considerations, it assessed different indicators that contribute to poverty and inequality in all the states in Nigeria.
Consequently, Osun, according to the bureau, now has a poverty index ratio of 8.52 per cent which unarguably has adjudged the state as having the lowest index in the country since the return to the current democratic dispensation.
The report, which declared 82.9 million Nigerians as poor, revealed that Lagos state has 4.50 per cent poverty head count rate, with Delta State having 6.02 per cent. Arising from all the aforementioned indices, Osun came below the urban poverty line average of 18.0 per cent and the national poverty line average of 40.1 per cent.
Governor Adegboyega Oyetola did not agree less in his reaction to the 4th of May 2020 favourable survey. The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Professor Olalekan Yinusa, for instance, while lending his voice to the NBS ranking saw it as an indication of an all-round socio-economic improvement which the state in recent years especially under Oyetola’s watch has witnessed.
In her assessment of the ranking which she maintained was without any prejudice but based factually on the survey and eventual report put before the glare of the public by NBS, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs. Funke Egbemode attributed it all to the significant progress Osun has made in recent years due to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s prudent utilisation of the resources of the state.
One must however be quick to implore the governor to continue to operate on his known populist oriented style of governance which has endeared it to the heart of the people.
Moshood Suleiman, [email protected]
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