Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, has described poverty as the biggest affliction currently plaguing the country. However, he acknowledged that it was self- inflicted by the many years of bad administration of the collective wealth of the people.

Amaechi spoke last night at the 1041th Wilton Park Conference in West Sussex, United Kingdom. The governor, one of the distinguished speakers who headlined the conference spoke on the broad theme, ‘Ending Internal Conflict: Comparative Approaches to Stabilisation and Counter-Insurgency, the Niger Delta Example”.

Governor Amaechi told his audience of top level security and conflict resolution experts from around the globe that ninety-nine percent of the internal conflicts in Nigeria are economic driven, caused by the many years of bad administration and mis-application of the huge resources of the country, which has rendered the masses poverty-stricken.

Amaechi said that “besides the Niger Delta, there were crises in the north. Boko Haram(Islamic religious fundamentalist sect) is in Northern Nigeria. There is the Jos crisis… Virtually all the crisis or conflicts in Nigeria have economic origins or base, and this is because of the inability and failure of successive governments to manage the huge resources we have in the country.”

“I honestly don’t see how the Niger Delta crisis fits into what you call insurgency. I don’t, because it’s just crime and this is because of the weakness and failure of the institution of government in Nigeria. These so called militants leverage upon this failure to commit these crimes. Endemic corruption… have nearly killed governance in Nigeria. And it has affected virtually every sector or institution in Nigeria.”

“I have always said that the rich and the poor all want to survive, they all want something to eat. If the rich who govern are unable to provide an economic environment that provides an opportunity for a legal means of livelihood, then the poor in their own capacity would provide an illegal means of livelihood, whatever would bring money, because either way they would die. If they commit crime, they may die when caught, if the government does not provide a means of livelihood for them, they could also die of hunger…

Either way the poor are doomed. But the easiest way out now, since the government has not been able to provide a legal means of livelihood is to explore the illegal means of survival. And the chances are that they may not be caught since the security system is poor and porous.

Even when they know that they are going to be caught, most often, they would rather take their chances on surviving illegally, instead of dying from hunger.”

”So if we want to find the solution to the current crisis in Nigeria, the internal conflicts in the country, which is not limited to the Niger Delta, then, we must tackle the issue of poverty… we must look at it from the perspective of poverty, tackle it from the root, because if we sort that out, we would be able to put an end to what you call insurgency.”

At the forum, Governor Amaechi also advocated the practice of true fiscal federalism in Nigeria, strict enforcement of law and order, development of the oil-bearing communities and their participation in the oil economy, provision of basic infrastructures to drive the economy etc.

He decried successive governments, over-dependence on oil for most of their revenue and not much is been done to diversify the sources of revenue.