'Poverty Hampers Economic Growth'

from All Africa

Daily Trust (Abuja)

By Chris Agabi
Abuja

The Speaker, House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh has said that poverty hampers Nigeria's economy growth, its democratic ideals and mortgages the fundamental freedom of choice of the poor.

The poor are powerless, unable to influence key decisions affecting their lives and this is threatening their well being and dignity, she said.

Mrs. Etteh was speaking through the ANPP majority leader in the House of Repres-entatives, Hon. Mohammed Ali Ndume, at the formal inau-guration of the House Comm-ittee on poverty Alleviation recently.

According to the speaker: "Poverty exerts negative repercussions on all aspects of our development and existence. It is painful; the poor are constantly subjected to physical, mental and emotional trauma. She noted that the many a social vices and conflicts across the nat-ion can largely be attributed to poverty because, poverty robs a people of their self confidence, potentials and it is a precursor of backwa-rdness and stagnation.

Studies on Nigeria, she said, revealed that "illiteracy, unemployment, income ineq-uality, sickness, failed busin-esses and environmental abuse are some of the causes of poverty".

She called for youth empowerment through the acquisition of skills and sustainable jobs that provide regular sources of livelihood as a panacea against agents of social vices.

"The house committee on poverty alleviation can exp-lore ways of redirecting the creative energies of Nigerian youths in the ICT. The med-ium could be deployed locally in creating cost effective marketing of sundry Nigerian products. "The internet is empowering users and crea-ting new business models. It represents an exciting new frontier with limitless opportunities."

She also tasked them to collaborate with donor agen-cies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, to connect Nigerian youths to legitimate ICT opportunities. The speaker also urged them to find ways of also empo-wering communities with integrated development strat-egies is made to identify and showcase its potentials.

"She called for elicit community-based participation in localized industries to maximize and sustain employment genera-tion and wealth creation and more attention to SMEIS and other service providing businesses."

Mrs. Etteh also tasked them to ensure that NAPEP and other poverty alleviation agencies are properly man-aged and intervention meas-ures get to the end users.

In his Address, the Chairman of the Committee on Poverty alleviation, Hon. Babangida Tijani Banki said "the success or failure of government is the ability or inability of the government to impact positively on the general welfare of the citizens. He noted that the house will be judged not by the number of laws made but more importantly, by the positive impact of those laws on the overall welfare of the citizenry especially poverty alleviation.

He assured that the committee was prepared to ensure that poverty is drasti-cally reduced if not completely wiped out.

The committee revealed it has already mapped out a nine-point strategic agenda which includes the review of all relevant policies and a proposal for necessary legislation in the area.

The chairman assured of harmonious working relatio-nships with all relevant gove-rnment agencies like NAPEP, SMEDAN, MDGs, NGOs, developmental agencies, and other relevant stakeholders to fight poverty.

"We believe that with synergy of ideas and co-oper-ation amongst all stakeh-olders, we can and shall indeed make considerable progress in our collective resolve to fight poverty. Remarking, the National coordinator of NAPEP, Magnus Kpakol, assured of his willingness to cooperate with the committee so as to effectively contain poverty.

He called on all members of the house to work with NAPEP in fighting poverty since they represent the grass root. Every member should be seen fighting poverty, working arm in arm with NAPEP".