'Poverty should top agenda for leaders'

• Published date: 13 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

International Organisation for Food, Shelter and Empowerment (IOFSE) has urged candidates for next month's elections to take poverty and other forms of deprivation in the country as an emergency.

IOFSE's Executive Director, Declan Oguine, gave the advice in Ideato, Imo State, while speaking on the election holding from February 25.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in November, claimed N133 million Nigerians, representing 63 per cent, were multi-dimensionally poor, while World Bank described the country as the world's poverty capital.

Oguino, joined by Country director and director of Operations, noted that IOFSE was non-partisan, but concerned about the statistics.

Although the executive director acknowledged there had been attempts by a few ministries and agencies to address the issues, he said successive governments in the country have failed to find a solution to unemployment and Nigeria's economic malaise.

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He advised candidates for president, governors and lawmakers to confront poverty and empowerment of the people as a first-line charge.

'What we believe is that ending poverty, which means crafting and...