PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday debunked
the World Bank and African Development Bank (ADB) report with regards to
poverty level in Nigeria arguing that there is no abject poverty in the
country.
Statistics given by the World Bank with regards
to poverty level in Nigeria indicated that as at 1992, Nigeria had 42 per
cent poverty level, which later increased to 70 per cent in 1996.
To ascertain the true picture of the poverty
level in their region, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) used
the African Development Bank report in which they equally were convinced
that currently, the poverty level in the region stands at 70 per cent.
Reacting to their report which the management
of NDDC presented to him yesterday, Chief Obasanjo explained that although
there is poverty, insinuations that there is abject poverty in Nigeria is
untrue, he stressed.
"There is virtually nobody in our rural areas
as far as I know that does not know what he will eat tomorrow morning. Now
there is poverty yes, but there is no abject poverty,'' he dismissed.
According to him, it is not possible to say
that there is poverty in Nigeria to at least 40 to 70 per cent between just
few years in a country, which did not go into war or faced four years of
drought, he further retorted.
"And that we have 42 per cent poverty in 1992
and by 1996 we went up to 70 per cent is untrue. We haven't had a war, we
haven't had an epidemic, we haven't really changed our economy, and we
haven't had four years of drought. What made it take off from 42 to 70 per
cent?� he queried.
Chief Obasanjo who interrupted the presentation
of the master plan of the NDDC to dismiss this finding, questioned the
management of commission on where they got the figures.
The president further said if it was the time
government moved from non-structural adjustment to structural adjustment
they would say this, and questioned further if they could substantiate it.
The Federal Office of Statistics, he said, is
currently working on the issue, urging them to disregard ADB statistics
until they get it right. �Don't dramatise what does not need to be
dramatized,� he cautioned.
Speaking shortly after the presentation, the
chairman of NDDC, Chief Onyema Ogochukwu explained that the master plan
presented does not belong to NDDC but to all stakeholders in the region.
He stated that states and local governments
that constituted the region have been consulted and that the region has also
been consulted for which the master plan being developed was appreciated.
To achieve its project execution, he added, NDDC will provide a
framework in order to avoid duplication of developmental projects.
