The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari government to put measures in place that would stop the country from sinking in the next 10 years.
He urged federal and state governments to prioritize massive investment, in the area of health and education, in order to prevent the country from sinking into the state of penury.
The call came following the latest prediction by the World Bank on Nigeria.
The Emir was speaking yesterday in his palace when he played host to a delegation from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
He said, “Two days ago, I read a report in Bloomberg, a latest World Bank report on Nigeria, which was issued on Monday. The World Bank has predicted that if things continue the way they are, within the next 10 years, Nigeria will be home to 25 per cent of all the poor people of the world.”
The monarch pointed out that the report showed that in 10 years’ time, if nothing was done to reverse the trend, the number of poor people in the country will be increased by 30 million.
He noted that poverty is not just measured in terms of money but in terms of lack of access to quality education, access to quality healthcare, infant and maternal mortality, as well as lack of nutrition.
“And the best way to end poverty is to invest in health and education. So, we are calling on the Federal Government, state governments to continue to allocate more and more of the budget to these areas.
“I am also calling on the private sector and philanthropists to invest in these areas, because this is the only way we can avert crisis,” he said.
