We have lost so much grounds ―Ex-Niger gov

The immediate past governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, has raised an alarm that Nigeria’s economy has in the last six years been plunged into grave dangers and weakened by bad policies, poor implementation, wastages and plundering.

He stated this, on Friday, in a statement issued and made available to Journalists in Minna, by his Director, Media and Publicity, Mr Bala Bitrus, adding that those in the driver’s seat have been clueless on how to turn the economic wheel around out of its wood, while the country has continued to slide into doldrums, greater pains, penury and uncertainty.

The former governor who was quoted as saying this in an interview in his Abuja residence noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing activities of criminal armed bandits and kidnappers in parts of the country have further worsened the state of the country’s economy.

Dr Babangida Aliyu said, “worst-hit places were the states in North Central, North West and North East where insurgents and armed bandits have gone haywire killing and destroying people’s means of livelihoods and economic activities have thus been grounded, hence the spiral cost of living and depreciation in the standard of living in the country.”

The Talba Minna pointed out that the economic policies put in place in the past six years have been inconsequential and of little effect to redress the wobbling economic situations in the country.

He argued further that without true and real empowerment of citizens, the superficial torch – the – surface – dressings in the name of giving palliatives to citizens was adding no value on citizens as hardship bites harder every day.

“Our country’s economic base has been without productivities, and the manufacturing sectors of the country have been in a moribund state and laying prostate,” he added further.

The former two-term governor of Niger State, who was chairman, of the 19 Northern States Governors Forum, pointed out that the federal government’s School Feeding Programme was a waste of resources.

“Without defined social security programmes for citizens, the federal government’s schools feeding programme was meant to fail from its start.

“What is paramount is for citizens, parents of children to be empowered so that they could confidently take care of their wards at home rather than giving school pupils rations and fragments of meals during schools hours,” he said.

The former governor recalled that some years ago, the Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) led government had implemented the school feeding programme on a pilot scheme, in few states but realised its unworkability and had to jettison it quickly.

In cases of abduction of school students, the former governor said, “our country’s security agencies should have known that the Kankara school boys abduction in Katsina State was a try test by the bandits for subsequent schools invasions.

“The Kagara Science School abduction in Niger State and subsequent raids on schools elsewhere by armed bandits would have been avoided if the country’s security agencies were upbeat and proactive to the latter,” he noted.

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We have lost so much grounds

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