Labaran Maku, Nigeria's information Minister has stated that even though poverty is a national challenge that transcends the whole country cutting across party divides, in reality, the responsibility of fighting poverty does not rest solely with the Federal Government.
Maku said, "States and Local Governments share in this responsibility too. State Governments hold the key to fighting poverty in their States."
The Information Minister contended that "Dealing with poverty as a partisan phenomenon would be trivializing the problem. All hands need to be on deck to fight poverty. Federal Government efforts are mainly at the policy level, while actual projects/programmes are carried out by the States. In spite of this, Federal interventions to reduce poverty have taken place in Agriculture; Health; Education; Housing; Communication Technology; Works; Transportation and other sectors of the economy."
To the Minister, the AfDB report presents poverty, inequality, and unemployment in Nigeria without the appropriate and illuminating global context. He said that these three challenges have increasingly become global issues, which policymakers around the world are grappling with everyday. For example, South Africa's unemployment rate and Gini Coefficient, which measures the dispersion in income and wealth amongst individuals, is 26% and 0.63, respectively, compared to Nigeria's 24% and 0.45.
Maku revealed that "The Gini Coefficient for other comparator countries like Brazil, China, and Singapore are 0.52, 0.47, and 0.48, respectively"; but went on to say that "Despite our favourable comparisons, these numbers trouble us. And that is why the Administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has been working very hard to address them."
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Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria