Sokoto Improving Despite Poverty Report, Says Commissioner Achida
Sokoto Improving Despite Poverty Report, Says Commissioner Achida
From Bashir Rabe Mani in Sokoto
The Sokoto State Government says the state is improving and will record better outcomes in subsequent poverty reports despite its current rating.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Development, Dr Bashir Muhammad Achida, while reacting to recent poverty reports linked to the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the Multidimensional Poverty Index.
According to Achida, if true results are to be revealed and if the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, which is the statutory body, releases fresh statistics, Sokoto will show a different outcome because multidimensional poverty is tied to investments in education and healthcare where the present administration has made huge interventions.
“More than 56 new schools are currently being built in the state. More than 300 and something have been renovated just by one agency, forget about what other agencies are doing. All the entire secondary schools of the state are under renovation,” he said.
He disclosed that the recent budget amendment has approved establishment of more secondary schools to bridge the gap between over 2,126 primary schools and only 326 secondary schools in the state, to improve retention and transition of children.
Achida insisted that the present administration does not discard data like the previous one did, noting that when the last multidimensional poverty statistics was released by the NBS during the past administration, it was discarded.
“We are intellectuals. We take data, whether it is positive or negative, we scrutinize it.
“Where it is positive, we will take it. Where it is negative, we will scrutinize it and work on it. We are not throwing away this report,” he said.
The don said the state’s own analysis puts poverty at 59.6 percent as against the 90.1 percent previously released by the NBS.
On UNDP, which he described as a good partner, Achida said the agency also shares responsibility.
“UNDP is a world-recognized body. If Sokoto is poor, if any country is poor in the world, UNDP also has a hand in it because its sole responsibility is to provide development.
“They are in Sokoto, they are working, and they are supposed to identify some of these problems.
” Even last week, my staff were with them and they never discussed anything about this poverty incident,” he said.
He said the root cause of the state’s current rating is serious neglect under the previous administration.
“Because of the serious neglect that this state has experienced under their administration, any other person can come out to say that Sokoto is bad, but not somebody who has served in the last administration,” he said.
Dr Bashir Achida added: “If the statutory body says we are number 30, we are not the last.
“We have improved from where they left us. I assure you by the grace of God, if true results are to be revealed, you are going to experience a different outcome.”
He cautioned against using the report as political rhetoric to score points.
