Rotimi Amaechi, Transportation Minister, says the rising cases of insecurity bedeviling the nation is caused by hunger and poverty.
Mr Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State, stated this while appearing on Channels Television yesterday.
Insecurity has worsened under President Muhammadu Buhari. The recent killing of rice farmers in Borno at the weekend renewed calls for his resignation from office.
In 2015 when he sought the position, he had promised to prioritize insecurity and flush out Boko Haram insurgents. But early this year after being re-elected, he expressed surprised that the terror group was still existing despite his administration’s claim of decimating the terrorists.
While 110 of the farmers where beheaded, according to the United Nations, 7 citizens in Southern Kaduna were killed yesterday.
Speaking on the issue, Mr Amaechi said the development was caused by rising hunger and poverty in the land. He added that the federal government was doing all it could to remedy the situation as calls for restructuring is not totally the solution.
“If to you what is important is restructuring, I don’t see anything wrong with restructuring but I am saying it is not the most critical problem we have,” the minister said, “The most critical problem we have is that hunger and poverty are breeding insecurity.”
“If you are able to create employment, you create security. If you like hire as many men as you want to hire that are policemen, you would do nothing until you put food in the hands of people.
“When you do not create a legitimate economy, the people will create for themselves an illegitimate economy and be able to feed themselves. When we were in power as governors, the problem we were facing was Boko Haram. Now is it much more than Boko Haram. We need to address those issues,” he added.
