The Executive Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, has countered a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) about Sokoto being one of the poorest states in Nigeria.
Tambuwal countered the report in a statement released by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Malam Muhammad Bello.
The governor talked while collecting a report titled: “Sokoto Development Plan: 2020-2025.”
The NBS in its April 2020 Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) report said nine of the 10 poorest states in Nigeria were located in the northern region and listing Sokoto, Taraba, and Jigawa as part of the poorest states in the country.
While reacting to the report, Tambuwal said: “I do not intend to join issues with the NBS, but I appeal to them to come clear on their variables and how they do their assessments of poor states in Nigeria.
“We also want to know how NBS arrived at Sokoto being the poorest.
“We know that, as a matter of fact, something must be fundamentally defective and wrong with their processes and the outcome of those processes.
“The fact of the matter is when you look at the programmes we are implementing in Sokoto State, they are people-friendly.
“They are promoting and supporting the vulnerable, the poorest of the poor.
“Even, what we are doing through Zakkat and Waq Commission (SOZECOM) alone, I am not aware that there is any state that is doing as much.”
Tambuwal said his dispensation had spent nothing less than N4 billion to promote the businesses of more than 200 small scale traders across the 23 Local Government Areas of Sokoto State.
