Tackling Poverty, not armament, best way to wipe out crime in society – Obi

Obi

By TANKOALI

…Commends CDS for seeing reason

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has reiterated his position that poverty, more than any other variable, is the cause of increasing crimes in society.

Obi, who commended the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, for coming to terms with this reality, writes in his X handle that the more people are pulled out of poverty, the fewer crimes there are in society.

“I have consistently maintained that the more we pull people out of poverty, the more we reduce criminality, and the reverse is also true. You can not separate security from human development; they are inextricably linked.

“The criminality we witness in Nigeria today is not a coincidence or an accident. It is the cumulative outcome of decades of misplaced priorities, the direct consequence of poor governance, mismanagement of public resources, monumental corruption, and systemic neglect.

“I have consistently maintained that development is not about awarding billion-naira contracts for white elephant projects or building structures without soul or purpose. Real development means investing in the critical areas of human development that directly impact human capital: education, healthcare, and poverty eradication.

“A country where nearly 100 million citizens live in extreme poverty and over 140 million experience multidimensional poverty will inevitably face a serious security crisis.