Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, said Nigeria has the highest number of poor people globally.
The governor said this while launching the State Social Protection Policy.
El-rufai laments that programs and initiative created for the benefit of the poor in the society are almost always given to the important people in the society instead of giving it to people who needs and deserves it.
According to him, these unfortunate actions and mentality has contributed wholly to the plethora of problems Nigeria faced.
“Nigeria is going through serious trying times, and it’s no longer news that we have the largest number of poor people than any country in the world.
“Yet, whenever a program is designed to help the poor and vulnerable, we resort to a slot mentality by allocating this funds to important people instead of giving it to the poor and vulnerable who deserve it.
“This is unfortunate. We must move away from slot mentality and use our social register to offer targeted support to those that truly need it.
“I appeal to all my colleagues, the political elites, to please drop this slot mentality and use the social register so that programs targeting the vulnerable actually go to the poor and vulnerable.
“When we think of the poor and vulnerable, we must all remember that the welfare of each one of us is bound up in the welfare of all of us,” he said.