Sokoto Youth Group Rejects Poverty Ranking, Cites State’s Recent Interventions

The Sokoto Youth Emancipation Front (SYEF) has rejected as misleading a recent report making the rounds in the media, claiming that nine out of every ten residents of Sokoto State live in multidimensional poverty. In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Mallam Hamisu Sani, and made available to newsmen, the group described the figure as […]

The Sokoto Youth Emancipation Front (SYEF) has rejected as misleading a recent report making the rounds in the media, claiming that nine out of every ten residents of Sokoto State live in multidimensional poverty.

In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Mallam Hamisu Sani, and made available to newsmen, the group described the figure as “an exaggeration taken too far,” stressing that it does not reflect the strides made by the current administration to improve living conditions.

Sani said Governor Ahmad Aliyu’s administration has, in recent months, rolled out a series of people-centred programmes to ease hardship, stimulate agriculture, and uplift vulnerable citizens.

He noted that fertilizer has been distributed severally to farmers across the state free of charge, alongside free seedlings, farm inputs, and implements to boost food production.

In response to current economic challenges, the government has repeatedly provided food assistance under its palliative programme, reaching the physically challenged, vulnerable groups, imams, their deputies, and muazzins with both food and cash support.

The SYEF spokesperson also drew attention to the restoration and upward review of monthly allowances for the physically challenged, a programme introduced during the Wamakko administration but abandoned under former Governor Tambuwal.

The allowance, he said, was increased from ₦6,500 to ₦10,000 by the current government. Furthermore, for the first time in the history of Sokoto, Jumu’at mosques now receive monthly cash allocations, with Grade A mosques getting as much as ₦500,000.

“These interventions are deliberate steps to empower our people and restore dignity, even in the face of national economic hardship,” Sani said. “It is therefore unfair to conclude, without balanced data, that Sokoto is a state completely overrun by poverty.”

He added that the government has also focused on human capital development through teacher recruitment, scholarship awards, skills acquisition for youth and women, and expansion of primary healthcare services.

The group revealed that the state government has commissioned a survey, urging analysts and media outlets to await the outcome of the ongoing multidimensional poverty index survey commissioned by the state government before drawing definitive conclusions.

The group states that, recently, the governor has set up a committee to oversee the recruitment of citizens into the State Civil Service.