Tackling hunger and poverty is more critical than restructuring — Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi does not see anything wrong with calls for the restructuring of the country but insists tackling hunger and poverty is more critical to the federal government.

“If to you what is important is restructuring, I don’t see anything wrong with restructuring but I am saying it is not the most critical problem we have,” the Minister said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. “The most critical problem we have is that hunger and poverty are breeding insecurity.”

Amaechi who was the governor of Rivers State between 2007 and 2015, explained that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is more concerned about reducing poverty in the country, and believes that creating jobs for the people will keep them away from crime.

“If you are able to create employment, you create security. If you like hire as many men as you want to hire that are policemen, you would do nothing until you put food in the hands of people,” the 55-year-old who moved to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in November 2013, added. “When you do not create a legitimate economy, the people will create for themselves an illegitimate economy and be able to feed themselves.”

While admitting that many farmers are unable to go to their farms in some parts of the country, the APC chieftain said Nigeria is facing a kind of insecurity unlike what was obtainable in the past.

“We are facing a different kind of insecurity,” the minister noted, a few days after the United Nations said at least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others wounded when Boko Haram insurgents attacked villages near Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

“When we were in power as governors, the problem we were facing was Boko Haram. Now, it is much more than Boko Haram. We need to address those issues.” (Channels TV)