KADUNA — The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has declared that poverty is a direct cause of insecurity in the country vis-à-vis the relationship that exists between governance, poverty, and insecurity.
Ahmed, while delivering the 19th convocation lecture of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), titled, “The Governance, Security, and Development Nexus in Nigeria: Innovative Financing as an Essential Enabler,” on Thursday noted that insecurity, in turn, further exacerbates poverty and impacts governance.
“There was a near-global consensus among world leaders, policy experts and academics that the fight against poverty was essential to ensuring global peace, security and stability.”
“These mutually reinforcing phenomena have been coined the ‘doom spiral’; poverty is both a cause of insecurity and an outcome of it”.
“The federal government recognizes that peace, justice, and accountable institutions were critical to the achievement of Nigeria’s sustainable development agenda.”
“The biggest priority for African nations, including Nigeria, was to address the root causes of insecurity, and strengthen governance,” she said.
According to her, the link between poverty, security and development must be situated within the current context, and to guarantee sustainable development, peace and stability, Nigeria must rise and tackle poverty decisively.
She said the federal government made it a national priority to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.
“We recognize therefore that peace, justice, and accountable institutions are critical to the achievement of Nigeria’s sustainable development agenda.”
“Therefore, the challenge is clear, the biggest priority for African nations including Nigeria is to address the root causes of insecurity, and strengthen governance.”
“In the absence of security, the governance structures in a nation are vulnerable to collapse, thus undermining sustainable development. Thus, security and good governance are foundational and fundamental to the attainment of sustainable development.
“They form a critical part of the super-structure on which economic growth and development can be achieved in any country.”
“To guarantee sustainable development, peace, and stability, Nigeria must rise and tackle poverty decisively. Signaling the importance of this, the Federal Government has made it a national priority to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next ten years.”
The minister stated that the goal of attaining sustainable development across the African continent is further distilled in Agenda 2063, the African Union’s master plan for the transformation of the continent.
“The first aspiration of the Agenda was a prosperous Africa marked by inclusive growth and sustainable development with the second and third aspirations referencing a desire for good governance, peace and security.”
“With sustainable development as the goal, several underlying conditions in our domestic environment must be established and maintained. Governance, specifically good governance, and security are critical enabling factors for sustainable development.”
“We must all therefore look beyond short-term solutions, and work towards sustainability, addressing the long-standing challenge of domestic revenue mobilisation, and leverage innovative financing as an essential enabler for sustainable and inclusive growth.” she added.
The minister declared that these continental and global commitments to which Nigeria is a signatory align with the federal government’s short to medium-term development plans, which centre on economic, social and environmental sustainability issues.
She said the concept of security is much easier to grasp as it affects the well-being of individuals, families, communities, and nation-states.
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