Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, the 2019 Presidential Candidate of Young People’s Party (YPP), has identified poverty as the major cause of social vices in the country.
He made the remark while presenting a paper at a one-day programme organised by a Kano-based NGO, Ra’ayi Initiative for Human Development (RIHD) in Kano on Sunday.
Moghalu spoke on: Northern Nigeria’s Prosperity in the 21st Centuary: The Imperative of Social and Economic Transformation.
He stressed the need for the government to take proactive measures through the implementation of various intervention programmes meant for improving living conditions of the masses.
“Ninety two million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty out of which 67 per cent of the number is in the north,” he said.
According to him, there are many other reasons identified as responsible for the socio-economic challenges bedevilling the country.
He said the alarming growing number of out-of-school children as well as the Almajiri system must be addressed to reverse the ugly trend for the development of the region and the country.
“Almajiri children is a system that has to be remodelled.
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“Moreso half of girls in the the north are not going to school. So all these problems have to be addressed if the country is to move forward,” he said.
Moghalu, who was a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said there was also need to give priority attention to human development to enhance the living standard of Nigerians.
He also called on the government to address the lingering security challenges for the social and economic growth and development in the country.
Earlier, the Chairman of the occasion and former Kano State Commissioner for Finance, Prof. Kabiru Dandago, said the lecture was organised to engage discussion on problems affecting the north in particular and the country at large with a view to proffering solutions.
He called on members of the organisation to join hands with its leadership in order to come up with suggestion that would address the prevailing socio-economic challenges in the country.
NAN reports that prominent personalities including a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Nuruddeen Mohammed, attended the lecture held at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH). (NAN)