By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared his determination to buck the trend of poverty weaponization in Nigeria regardless of the name-calling propaganda by his political detractors.
Atiku stressed that he is not ashamed to be called a conspirator because of this commitment, identifying former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, as fellow conspirator.
The ex-VP spoke on Saturday in Abuja during the 60th birthday lecture of former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, themed “Weaponising Poverty in Nigeria.”
“You may call me a conspirator, you may call me anything, and that is why we are in this alliance to make sure we don’t allow them to continue weaponising poverty. Of course, one of our star conspirators is Rotimi Amaechi.
“We will continue to conspire with you to make sure we minimise poverty and we don’t use state machinery to weaponise poverty,” he said.
He also accused the current administration of deliberately using poverty as a political weapon, claiming that economic hardship is being manipulated to control and suppress the population.
“This particular government is weaponising poverty,” Atiku declared.
He emphasised this by recounting his early years.
He added, “When I was growing up in the north, the most prosperous city or state was Kano State.
“As soon as I finished secondary school, my first location was Kano State. I never saw people sleeping outside. Then there were no bridges or flyovers.”
He continued, painting an ugly picture of present-day Kano, “Recently, people were all over the state sleeping under the bridge, on the streets, who were driven out by poverty and insecurity. There is a state agency in Kano responsible for providing support to such people. And they started doing their work and enlightening people and removing people from under the bridges and outside on the streets.
“They were called to Abuja and they were told to stop it.”
