Security, education key to poverty reduction, say Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso

By Benjamin Omoike

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Sunday, all agreed that security and education are required to pull Nigerians out of poverty.

They said this while responding to questions on the Arise TV Presidential Town Hall Series. The Sunday edition was the third in the series.

In his submission, the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said he would use available statistics to deal with the issues of security and education.

According to him, investments in education and security would go a long way in addressing the poverty challenge.

He said: “We have all the statistics. We have to get our children educated; by the time you educate them, they become readily available for the private sector to recruit them.

“The private sector is key to driving the economy. The private sector in the third world country, agriculture is the main employer of labour.

“Here again you have to give incentives to the private sector.”

Atiku maintained that under his administration, he would provide incentives to the private sector most of which would go to the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to encourage young people to set up businesses and grow them to create employment.

He recalled that during his time as Vice President, he commissioned a study which proffered solutions to the high number of out-of-school children, especially in Northern Nigeria.

Atiku, however, expressed sadness that none of the northern governors took steps to implement the report which would have gone a long way in substantially reducing the number.

Speaking on the same subject, the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, said the Federal Government should take the lion’s share of the blame for the growing poverty in Nigeria.

This, he said, is because it controls the issue of fiscal policy as well as the issue of security which has degenerated to a point where farmers can no longer go to the farms.

He said the Federal Government needs to clearly spell out its fiscal policy to grow investor confidence in the economy.

Obi said: “The major factor causing poverty is the Federal Government.

“We need security to restore confidence of Foriegn investors in the economy.”

He also lamented that investment in education has remained poor over the years. This, he said was largely responsible for falling standards and growing poverty.

The LP candidate said when compared to South Africa, Nigeria’s investment in education is abysmal.

“Our investment in education is low, it’s about N3.6 trillion in the last six years, which is less than 10 percent.

“In South Africa, they invested about 380 trillion rands, which is about 14 to 16 percent of their budget,” he said.

Speaking about his plans to deal with the challenge of the scary rate of out of school children, especially in the north, Obi said, “Most of these children studied Quran.

“And if they studied the Quran, it means they are intelligent. I will meet them at this point and give them skills.”

He also expressed the view that increasing the number of security personnel will go a long way in dealing with our security challenges.

In his submission, Kwankwaso said for the NNPP, education has always been key in the party’s plan to pull people out of poverty.

He said: “Education has always been key for us in pulling people out of poverty.

“I’m not surprised that we have 133 million poor people (out of a population of 200).

If you talk to road side economists they will tell you the figure is much higher.”

This, he said, would be reversed when he gets the chance to become president, noting that he did this successfully during his time as two-term governor of Kano State.

In the area of security, he said if given the chance he would increase the number of security personnel across board and properly equip them to perform their duties.

However, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu has once again shunned the event.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, again, shunned the Arise presidential debate held on Sunday with the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar; Peter Obi of Labour Party, LP, and Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, in attendance.

Tinubu, through his presidential campaign council, on Saturday, in a statement indicated that he won’t be attending any debate organised by the TV station whom he accused of being biased against him.

He also asked his supporters and spokespersons to boycott the TV station.

The PCC, in a statement issued on Saturday by one of its spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga, said the 1999 Constitution does not make it mandatory for a candidate to attend a debate organised by any entity.

Recall that the APC presidential candidate had declined an invitation to the first meeting on Security and Economy held on 6 November. He said the debate clashed with his campaign schedule.

He was replaced with Kola Abiola, the candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party.