FG To lift 100 million Nigerians from poverty

President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration is planning to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next decade.

Speaking Saturday at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, near Jos, during the graduation ceremony of Senior Executive Course (SEC) 42, the president said his government would be tackling social inequality and entrenching better standards of living for the generality of the people.

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Represented by Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, who read his speech, Buhari said their role as government is to create an environment in which enterprise and industry can thrive.

“In recent months, we have seen what happens when resentment, bitterness and discontent snowball into social unrest. We have also seen that when order collapses, all of us are directly and indirectly in peril. Enlightened self-interest is an entirely unsentimental calculation which holds that the lives, livelihoods and investments of the privileged are truly safe only when they expand the circle of opportunity and prosperity.  This means tackling social inequality and entrenching better standards of living for the generality of the people.

The president explained that for many Nigerian entrepreneurs, the government is perceived more as a hindrance than a help whether in terms of taxation, infrastructural deficits and the general lack of an enabling environment, adding that this concept has to change, and that his administration is committed to changing it.

In his remarks, the Director General (DG) of NIPSS, Habu Galadima, said the graduands during the course have been well synchronized towards a high level of development of national consciousness.