The President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has attributed the massive poverty as the major reason for the high spate of kidnappings,insurgency and the militancy in the oil rich Niger Delta region.
The Africa’s richest man said that more than 100 million out of the country’s estimated population of 187 million are wallowing in poverty.
Dangote said this at the weekend Executive Course No. 38, 2016 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, Plateau State.
“The spate of kidnappings, intermittent vandalism of petroleum pipelines in the Niger Delta, and the protracted insurgency in the North-East are all fuelled, to a large extent, by the high level of endemic poverty in the country,” he stated.
Delivering a paper entitled: ‘Promotion of local manufacturing and poverty reduction in Nigeria: The private sector experience and policy options’, he said, “It is a curious paradox that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, and the largest economy on the continent, also has one of the highest levels of poverty.
Dangote pointed out that the current economic recession had further worsened the situation, as the government continued to record dwindling revenues, thus making it increasingly difficult for it to fulfil some of its obligations to the people.
He said, “Coupled with this, the activities of insurgents in the North-East have also affected the level of poverty in that part of the country. It is estimated that there are over 2.4 million Internally Displaced Persons in the region. It will take billions of naira to rebuild the North-East and fully re-settle the victims of the insurgency.”
