NIGERIA NEEDS CONCENSUS LEADERSHIP DRIVE TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY?

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 6. NO 219. 22nd October, 2017.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

NIGERIA NEEDS CONCENSUS LEADERSHIP DRIVE TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY?

Flaws in human development capacity by consecutive Nigerian governments had been the major setback for the various economic growth plans which have refused to yield positive results in 57 years of independence because the nation’s greatest asset - THE WORKFORCE - had been seriously maligned!

When ex-President Aremu Obasanjo took the mantle of leadership as a retired Army General, in 1999, he was quick to promise Nigerian workers, what he termed LIVING WAGES, because he feared that a civilian MUTINY could run his government aground faster than a military coup which might likely fail! But Obasanjo was insincere! He failed Nigerian workers by creating division in the Labour movement when they demanded for a national wage of N56.000 naira per month.
After some wrangling one faction settled for N18.000 naira, which, (18 years on), is still not honoured by many State Governments and they have been the most traumatised, battered and most disillusioned since Obasanjo's era!
It is general knowledge that most Nigerian workers are still owed up to 15 months of unpaid salaries and allowances in spite of two tranches of BAIL OUTS FUNDS released by President Muhammadu's APC Change Government on assumption of office and also another release of PARIS CLUB LOAN REFUNDS which have been allegedly diverted to other dubious sources to the advantage of the governors and their cronies.
The 36 States should be economically viable if only they capitalized on trending agricultural revolution strategies and also harness the God-given, immense deposits of solid mineral resources embedded in the belly of the earth!

For how long will African leaders/decision makers neglect the HUMAN DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL SECTOR without which government policies could ever materialize nor succeed. For instance, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), latest perception index on the state of POVERTY in Nigeria reveals that 121million, (70%), poor people in Nigeria (with an official population figure of about 170million), live below poverty line; that 10.5 million children are out of school, when Debt to GDP ratio is about 19%, Debt to Revenue ratio is 60%, and that most critical infrastructures are in the state of decay and collapse!

In view of the above unhealthy scorecards of past administrations which have dovetailed into the present political landscape, should Nigerians accept the House of Representatives Speaker's declaration  that  it would take Nigeria another 23 years to eradicate poverty, as the official position of the All Progressive's Congress (APC), ruling government because it is in the public domain that poverty alleviation is one of the cardinal "manifesto promise" of the Change Administration?
Could it be that the number Four citizen got confused with the United Nation's 2030 target year of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), globally?

We decide to believe that the Legislator in question was definitely misquoted for the following reasons:
1. Going by official statistics over 500.000, unemployed graduates from Nigeria's tertiary institutions have benefitted from the SOCIAL INTERVENTION PROGRAMMES [SIP], in areas of employment/training opportunities through which they earn a monthly stipend of N30.000 naira in a two-year grooming which would eventually impart them with necessary ENTREPRENUERSHIP SKILLS needed for the economic survival of the nation.
2. Conditional CASH TRANSFERS of N5.000 naira to 25 million poorest Nigerians is progressing steadily from State to State without discrimination.
3. With the promise by the Federal Government to negotiate an AMNESTY PROGRAMME with the Niger Delta Region pipeline vandals and also the introduction of MODULAR REFINERY concept to eliminate the mushroom crude-oil bunkering/refining methods which had taken unprecedented dimension among the Youths, militancy nosedived and a relative peace has allowed for a substantial increase in oil production output from 1.5 million to about 2.5million barrels per day to further support gains from the AGRICULTURAL AND SOLID MINERAL RESOURCES SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY!
4. Funds have been injected into the INDUSTRIAL/MANUFACTURING SECTORS to allow for MADE-IN-NIGERIA PRODUCTS to flood Nigerian markets and to discourage further importation of foreign goods into the country etc, - a tip of the iceberg on the scorecard of President Buhari's Poverty Alleviation Strategies, in just over two years of his Change Administration!

That poverty is as old as creation should not be an issue of controversy or debate! From time immemorial, there had existed inequality in the living standards between a large majority of citizens who are both psychologically and physically disadvantaged or deprived, both in developed and developing nations of the world!
Although statistics of poverty ratio disparity may defer from nation to nation, poverty remains a relative phenomenon which is applicable to societies or individuals whenever there existed a shortage of funds through incomes or other resources that are very imperative for quality living standards! It is evident that there are rich and poor nations but a common denominator among them is that poverty is depicted by a state of indigence, lack, need or economic ill-favour.
This unacceptable global phenomenon could be cyclical or permanent, depending on the management team at the helm of affairs or in the leadership cockpit during the course of economic journeys or voyages at such given periods of national history!

When governments fail in their constitutional social contracts with the citizens in the areas of provisions of social amenities - education, health facilities, employment opportunities, decent accommodations, non-availability of potable water and humans have to drink in the same infected stagnant pools with cattle’s, provision of adequate security, when the people have to live from hand to mouth because of economic recession, hyper inflation of goods and services etc, then, POVERTY is full blown and such countries would be exposed to all manner of political and economic instability because there is a correlation between poverty, crimes/criminalities!

CHINA'S INNOVATION IS IMPERATIVE!
President Xi Jinping of China is one Executive who caught world attention in recent times because of the his unusual patriotism and selfless leadership style which forbids him from dwelling in affluence and opulence while millions of his nation's excessive population of over 1 billion people, wallowed in squalor and abject poverty!
He has unequivocally, declared that poverty would be totally kicked out of his country by the year 2020 through the consolidation of massive employment in the agricultural, manufacturing and industrial sectors.
This Reformist who believes in the supremacy of strong institutions continued to build on the platforms for the eradication of poverty of previous administrations, which began in 1982, by ensuring that corruption had no place in his administration and also that more attention was paid to all facets of economic life of the nation, through introduction of modern agricultural innovations to ensure food sufficiency and security!
It is on record that over the last 35 years, 800 million people in China have been successfully lifted  out of poverty - in 2016 alone, the nation lifted 12.4 million people above poverty line and is determined to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty  annually AND STAMP OUT POVERTY PERMANENTLY FROM CHINA BY THE YEAR 2020!

PRESIDENT BUHARI VISITED IN CHINA TO LEARN FROM XI JINPING!
Although a lot criticisms trailed the several overseas trips of President Buhari since his assumption of office, we make bold to state that those trips were geared towards bridging economic deficit gaps through strategic feasible foreign loans and diversification to agriculture/solid mineral resources in view of crude oil price decline which was the worst and lowest international prices ever experienced in 14 years!
President Buhari in April 2016, visited China, which had invaded Africa's developing and under-developed countries on a rescue mission to set them free from self-inflicted poverty to economic viability through the template which catapulted them to becoming one of the current world powers and respected economic blocs - in fact, the second largest after the United States! PMB discovered that the greatest asset of the Chinese Government was its Human Development Capital which was fully mobilized to alleviate poverty permanently from the nation through adequate utilization of the agricultural and arable lands!

WORLD POVERTY ERADICATION DAY - 17TH OCTOBER, 2017!
The international lip-service annually paid to poverty eradication advocacy which was observed on 17th October, 2017 has come and gone as usual while the status-quo of the afflicted global citizens got worse with the rising and setting of the SUN!
It was twenty-five years ago, that the United Nations set aside that day for global attention for total eradication of poverty from all world societies, but little has been achieved positively especially in AFRICA and the under-developed nations because of bad, egotist, selfish, greedy and unbridled leadership life styles in those in those countries! But for President Buhari and his divinely-chosen team, POVERTY MUST BE ERADICATED BY THE YEAR 2020 when Nigeria will take its rightful place among the 20 MOST ECONOMICALLY-VIABLE NATIONS IN THE WORLD! Amen.

"For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." (Deut 15:11.KJV)

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.