There's Too Much Poverty in Nigeria, Declare a State of Emergency - Reps Tell FG

As Nigerians continue to groan bitterly under the heavy weight of the current economic crunch, the House of Representatives has reached out to the president on what should be done.

 The Federal Government has been urged by the House of Representatives on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency in the fight against poverty in the country.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, this followed the unanimous adoption of a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance by Rep. Muhammed Wudil (APC-Kano).

Presenting the motion, Wudil decried the increasing level of poverty in the country in spite of programmes designed by the government to eradicate it.

He urged the government to urgently put in place effective structure for the implementation of poverty reduction programmes in the country.

He expressed concern that efforts by various tiers of government and the National Assembly to check poverty had not yielded desired result, especially with the provision of N500 billion intervention funds in the 2016 budget.

“This has not yielded expected result as there is continued high rise of poverty in the country,’’ Wudil said, adding that in spite of poverty-alleviation programmes “50 million Nigerians are currently living in poverty’’.

He described the situation as a “wake up call’’ on government to rise up to its responsibilities of providing basic necessities of life for its citizens.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Yussuf Lasun, who presided at the session, referred the motion to the Committee on Poverty Alleviation for further legislative input.

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