The Sokoto Government has faulted the recent ranking as poorest state in the federation by the National Bureau of Statistics amongst other organizations.
The Permanent Secretary in the Sokoto State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Arzika Bodinga, expressed the displeasure at the one-day workshop on Dissemination of 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey/ National Immunization Coverage Survey 2021, on Tuesday, in Sokoto.
According to The Eagle, Bodinga said, “We are pleading for more serious scrutiny on the figure, rankings, I dare the agency to come up with data of any person found dead on account of hunger along township streets, including rural areas across the state.
”Go to the Specialist Hospital, Usmanu Danfodio University Teaching Hospital all in Sokoto and monitor how our people trooping in to donate blood.
”Welfare of citizens is not compatible to the related figure and we will continue to push for more positive results.
”We facilitated enactment of food and nutrition policies, the Conditional Cash Transfers Scheme, Water and Sanitation Health (WASH) facilities and many social protection policies.”
The permanent secretary urged the relevant authorities to cross check their findings, shun political infiltrations, foul play and other short changes that might be subjunctive in their findings.
However, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Hajia A’Isha Dantsoho, called for immediate action to reverse the situation.
She urged concerned authorities to copy from other states how they go about in handling their activities to overcome such challenges.
The presented documents, she said, would serve as a parameter to such surveys and other considerations to achieve results.
A lead facilitator, Dr Danjuma Almustapha, presented documents and measures undertaken to achieve the MICS/NICS 2021.
Almustapha presented comparative results of Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states, and led participants into discussion mostly centered on the need for officials to redouble efforts on implementation of policies.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics,133 million, about 63 per cent of Nigerians, are suffering from multidimensional poverty, with children constituting more than half of poor people in the country.
NBS disclosed this in its 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index, that 86 million poor people live in the North while 47 million live in the South.
In the least-poor zone, the South West, the MPI of 0.151 shows that poor people experience 15 per cent of possible deprivations, while in North East and North West, the MPI of 0.324 shows they experience over 32 per cent of possible deprivations.
According to the report, poverty levels across states vary significantly, with the incidence of multidimensional poverty ranging from a low of 27 per cent in Ondo to a high of 91 per cent in Sokoto state.
