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A former governor of Kano state, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau has called on the federal government to adopt poverty eradication as the centre piece of its national development agenda.

Shekarau made the call in his presentation as a keynote speaker at the 5th Annual Conference of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Alumni Association (Nigeria Chapter) tagged: Nigeria’s Social Economic Conditions: Realities and Remedies.”

The Emir of Keffi, Nasarawa state, Shehu Chindo Yamusa III, the president, IIUM Alumni in Nigeria Chapter, Professor Bashiru Adeniyi Omipidan and director, IIUM Alumni Relations Division, Dr. Illmyzat Bin Ismail also partook in the virtual event.

Shekarau said the call has become necessary to ameliorate the current harsh socio-economic conditions confronting Nigerians.

He noted that socio-economic conditions determine the well-being of citizens because it shows exactly how citizens fare in terms of income, safety and security, jobs, access to health care facilities, education and electricity among others.

Shekarau who was represented at the occasion by a renowned economist, Dr Muhammad Sagagi, however, insisted that Nigeria’s socio-economic condition is poor.

Shekarau said: “We must recognize that Nigeria does not, despite the vast resources that we have, we must accept that Nigeria has no fiscal resources that are required to develop the country and therefore you have to leverage on private sector resources, skills, and technology.

“This can be achieved through business environment reforms to attract private investment.

“The third aspect of your strategy is that governments at all levels must pay attention to eradication of poverty, inequality and joblessness.

“Economic growth by itself would not trickle down to the bottom of the pyramid without concerted efforts.

“You cannot expect this to trickle down to the bottom of the pyramid. Nigeria must design a robust redistribution programme efficient enough to tackle the problems of poverty, and joblessness.

“Also, a serious country that has poverty of this magnitude must adopt poverty eradication, at the centerpiece of its development.

“What does that mean? That means that economic performance will be measured by the number of jobs that you create, and the number of people that you lift out of poverty every year.”

In his remarks, the President of IIUM Alumni Association (Nigeria Chapter), Professor Bashiru Adeniyi Omipidan,
expressed hope that Nigeria will speedily come out of the current economic challenges.

He said the conference was meant to create a networking opportunity for about 800 IIUM Nigeria Alumni members and over 118,000 Alumni across the world.

He said the event was also meant to contribute to finding solutions to intractable economic challenges confronting the country.

On his part, the Emir of Keffi appealed to wealthy Nigerians to make positive contributions to long-term sustainable peace and development by working directly with people affected by humanitarian crises.

He said the principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence are fundamental to human and humanitarian actions, adding that humanity means that human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found, with particular attention to the most vulnerable.

According to the Emir of Keffi, “We should enforce policies and social protection system for youths and women.

“Women are less likely to have access to social protections, like pensions, unemployment benefits, maternity protections, and equal pay.

“For our youth, empowerment is important because empowerment means that people are equal citizens. They are respected and confident in their communities.

“You can empower someone to act or make someone empowered. It is about ways of working and supporting someone that means they can take control or responsibility for their own lives.”