“The Kind Of Poverty In The North Cannot Be Found Anywhere, Majority Are Turning Into Beggars” -Isa

Comrade Atiku Isa, the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students who lives and travels extensively across the northern states, has cast serious doubt on claims that President Tinubu’s government is spending billions of naira on projects, appointments and settlements across the north, saying he personally moves through those communities and cannot identify who is actually benefiting from the money. He argued that the visible poverty across the region tells a completely different story from the picture the government is projecting.

He said the level of poverty currently being experienced in the north is unlike anything found elsewhere in the country, describing scenes of healthy adult men roaming from one place to another begging because they cannot feed their families. He accused traditional rulers and Islamic scholars of maintaining a cowardly silence in the face of this mass suffering, arguing that those leaders have a responsibility to speak out when the majority of the people under their care are being reduced to beggars.

According to Atiku Isa, farmers in the north have been hit particularly hard because the cost of fertiliser has become prohibitive, and whatever they manage to grow cannot be sold at a price that recovers their investment because cheaper food is being imported into the country at rates that undercut local produce. He concluded that the government’s billions are flowing only to a small elite, with the wealthy becoming wealthier while the eighty percent of the population who are poor continue to sink deeper into destitution.

Atiku Isa said: “I move around the northern states and I live in the north. I don’t know the people that are benefiting from this money that you’re talking about, because the kind of poverty in the north cannot be found anywhere in the country. The kind of poverty where people cannot feed. That’s why I have always accused the traditional rulers and the Islamic scholars—you cannot keep quiet when the majority of the people are turning into beggars. Not only the youths; now you see healthy men coming to beg, moving from one place to another. The fertiliser is very expensive. If they buy fertiliser, they cannot sell what they get from their farms because food is being imported into the country at a cheaper rate. Those who are wealthy are becoming more wealthy and those who are poor, who are the majority—about 80%—are becoming poorer.”……See More