Onyekachi Eze, Abuja
State governors have reacted to the accusation by the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clement Agba, on the rising poverty index in the country, arguing that the minister’s attack on them was misplaced.
Agba had accused the state chief executives of misdirecting resources to projects that have no impact on the people.
According to him, the rural populace had been abandoned by the governors, which he added, was responsible for the 72 per cent of the poverty Nigerians in the rural areas.
But the governors, in a statement by Director, Media and Public Affairs of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, described the minister’s attack as diversionary.
“It is the opinion of the governors that the dereliction that the minister is talking about lies, strictly speaking, at the doorstep of the Federal Government which he represents,” Barkindo stated.
He argued that that it is the primary duty of any government is to ensure the security of lives and property, “without which no sensible human activity takes place.”
