From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
An NGO and poverty reduction campaigner, Push Africa, has launched campaigns in Borno and Yobe states to draw the attention of the political class to the growing poverty situation in the country.
Convener of the organisation, Doris Egberamen, while launching the campaign at a press conference in Maiduguri, Tuesday, said the key objective of the campaign is to focus the attention of those seeking elective offices to give attention to the increasing population of poor people in the country.
“The initiative is designed to advocate and support the Nigerian government’s effort to reduce the number of poor people in the country by half by the year 2030,” she explained.
She said the campaign, tagged “do-one-thing,” was an initiative to also support similar anti-poverty initiatives by development agencies and private sector institutions.
She said a key component of the campaign is a platform where poor people can tell their own stories if they were affected by poverty.
“This is to show the depth and harsh realities they live with. The projection is that by exposing the vulnerable conditions in which they live, the nation’s elected and appointed leaders will be encouraged to take serious and actionable steps towards solving the problem,” she explained.
The convener appealed to the media, Nigerians and other development organisations to support the campaigns.
She said the poverty situation in Borno and Yobe, was more compounded by the insecurity with over three million people forced to flee their homes in the over a decade insurgency.