By Bayo Alabira
Dutse
Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa state has blamed the incessant poverty ravaging the country at present time on the elite and political office holders who had failed to show commitment in their various levels of responsibilities.
Lamido admitted this yesterday while declaring close the symposium held at the Ahmadu Bello Conference Hall, Dutse, the state capital, in continuation of the state’s 23rd anniversary activities.
He stressed that his administration had succeeded in laying down a strong foundation for its economic growth as well as institution that will sustain the state in the future.
“Poverty in Nigeria is induced by the culture of denial,” he said.
Among the presenters, Professor Abubakar Saddiq Muhammed of the Department of Political Science, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, said in his paper that Jigawa state before Lamido’s administration was the poorest in the whole country.
He explained that “90.9 per cent was poverty in Jigawa state, and its per capital income was also one of the lowest in Nigeria.”
Muhammed further reiterated that despite the Budgets of 2000 and 2001 by the then administration of Ibrahim Saminu Turaki christened “Budget of Economic Development and Economic Empowerment” had failed to address the poverty in the state.
Therefore, until in 2007 when Lamido came to power that developments started spring up across all sectors of human endeavours.
