Poverty ravaging Nigeria, says APC Bauchi guber aspirant

From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi

All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirants in Bauchi state, Engr. Sadiq Mahmoud has observed that poverty presently ravaging Nigeria and its people could be addressed only through the active productive sector of the economy.

According to him, it is only through industrial production that people will have gainful employment, be economically empowered, and be in position to arrest poverty amongst the people and society generally.

“Without production, without the people getting something, you cannot get rid of poverty. Poverty can be only be addressed by making people getting involved in some productive activities, when you empower the people they become viable, and then you have a prosperous nation”, he said.

The APC gubernatorial aspirant in a chat with newsmen in Bauchi weekend attributed the poverty ravaging the people to government’s inability to stimulate the economy for the citizens to get anything.

“Since I was born, I have never seen poverty naked, naked with my very eyes like these years simply because the government doesn’t stimulate the economy for people to get something”, Mahmoud stated.

To this end, Mahmoud assured that his administration on assumption of power in Bauchi state come 2015 will revamp the productive sector, and accord  the highest priority industrialization deserves to get people out of the woods, and salvage the economy.

He explained that industries and factories will evenly be established across Bauchi state to not only get people employed and empowered but also to produce  their needs and sell excess to enhance revenue generation.

Other priority areas of the drive of his administration, the Bauchi APC governorship aspirant enumerated, include agricultural revolution for self-sufficiency in food production and minerals exploration to diversify revenue base.

“If we have coal for example, then we can have power, we can have electricity, we consume what we want; we sell the rest on the grid. There is also the possibility of a dam on Dindima River that will provide about 2, 000 hectares to irrigate and 60 megawatts of electricity, all these are wealth”, Mahmoud stated.