Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has insisted that there are more poor Nigerians now than during the country’s independence in 1960.

El-Rufai said if the Nigerian government makes it a priority, it can end poverty like China and India which are in the process of beating the menace.

The key member of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, disclosed this during an interactive session in Owerri, Imo State.

In his speech posted on his X page, the former governor said: “For the sake of our people, we need to have a roadmap for beating mass poverty.

“It is deeply embarrassing that, judging from the population estimate in 1960, there are now more poor Nigerians than there were Nigerians at independence 65 years ago. China has beaten mass poverty, while India is on a path to ending it.

“We too can do it, if we make it a governance priority to move our people out of poverty.”

El-Rufai said Nigeria needs a pragmatic economic programme to move citizens out of poverty.

He noted that rather than create agencies on humanitarian affairs, the Federal government should explore innovative ways of making honest Nigerians more hardworking.

The former governor also dismissed the get-rich-quick syndrome.

He said: “We need an economic programme to achieve this important human goal, a programme that is pragmatic in execution but ambitious in its goal.

“In this regard, what is needed is not new agencies of poverty alleviation or ‘humanitarian affairs’ with a massive bureaucracy, but innovative ways to make honest, hardworking citizens more productive and better-rewarded, while discouraging rent-seeking and other ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes in our society.”