Bashir Achida, the budget and economic planning commissioner in Sokoto, has dismissed claims that poverty has worsened under the present administration.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Mr Achida said global economic challenges affected many nations and drove poverty to rise worldwide. He criticised the African Democratic Congress governorship candidate in Sokoto, Mannir Dan’Iya, who capitalised on a United Nations Development Programme report on the state’s poverty ranking.

Mr Achida noted that the report was said to have ranked Sokoto third among Nigerian states most affected by multidimensional poverty, citing deprivations in education, clean drinking water, insecurity, housing, electricity and sanitation.

According to him, Mr Dan’Iya claimed that the ranking was alarming and challenged the All Progressives Congress-led administration to account for Federation Account revenues and other resources accruing to the state and its 23 council areas.

Mr Achida expressed regret over the governorship candidate’s position, which, according to him, portrayed his ignorance of indices and international ratings, as well as attribution to human development and well-being.

“With due respect to the former deputy governor, Sokoto was run by the administration in which he fully participated for eight years, during which all legally established agencies for data collection and analysis ranked Sokoto as the poorest state in the country.

“For eight years, Sokoto was number one as the poorest state, and if today the state is ranked differently, it is due to the efforts of the present government,” Mr Achida said.

The commissioner added that no legally established body has released any recent verifiable data showing Sokoto is currently the poorest. He argued that global economies are facing unprecedented challenges, high cost of living and meltdowns aggravated by security challenges, climate change and other factors.

“But due to right-thinking policies by the APC government at the federal level, World Bank projections for Nigeria’s economic outlook are positive and will trickle down to improve living standards and drastically reduce poverty growth,” he said.

The commissioner said no realistic data collected today would show Sokoto as the poorest, because no state has done so much in social protection as Sokoto under the incumbent governor.

(NAN)