The Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu has blamed the increasing rate of insecurity in the country on the extreme poverty imposed in 1986 by the military administration of President Ibrahim Babangida through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
He maintained the insecurity challenge being faced was the manifestation of the inhuman seed sown by the military through SAP.
Okechukwu, who is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), cautioned instead of the anger and blame game on the governing party, “we should come to the reality that the insecurity challenge we face today is the outcome of Extreme-Poverty planted in 1986 by the IMF Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).”
The VON boss, in a statement in Abuja on titled, “Insecurity in Nigeria: Challenging crisis of extreme poverty”, observed the development calls for introspection and deep reflection on how we became the World Poverty Capital and how best to exit fast.
“Yes we of the APC pledged to fix security in our dear country in every particular matter. That’s our pledge, and to be honest we are deploying billions and every material and human resources to contain it.
“However, we are confronted with Extreme-Poverty planted in 1986 by the IMF Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The day SAP was born was the day the gross economic inequality and insecurity in Nigeria was born. It has badly mutated since 1986.
“Economic inequality breeds extreme-poverty, hate, division and hostile insecurity, in countries wherever it is allowed to thrive throughout history.
“To be exact no matter how much trillions of Naira we spend on military hardware or how many times we change Security Chiefs, with Extreme-Poverty security will remain a mirage.”

By Jide Orintunsin