KEBBI State Governor, Mr Mohammed Nasir Idris, administers a state with a multidimensional poverty rate of 79.1 percent. But it ignored the realities of the state to offer N30 million cash to Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr Paul Enenche, who rejected it outrightly.
The governor’s gift was given to Dr Enenche at Kebbi Healing and Deliverance Crusade by Kebbi’s Commissioner for Social Duties, Mr Zayyanu Umar Aliero, who announced the cash present on behalf of the governor.
“Our Governor, His Excellency Dr Nasir Idris, a faithful governor and also a comrade governor, who you all know is the only comrade governor in this country. He has therefore graciously approved the donation of the sum of N30 million to this gathering,” the commissioner said.
“His Excellency has approved the donation of a sum of N30 million to the organising committee, which you know that whenever His Excellency makes a donation, he doesn’t leave without bringing that donation in cash. So, before I leave this stage, I want to present that sum of N30 million in cash,” he further said.
However, Enenche, presumably knowing the level of poverty in Kebbi State and also showing an example to others, rejected the offer outrightly, politely urging the governor to redirect the money to charitable causes.
“If there is anything like orphanage, if there is anything like that, at your discretion, please apply this amount of money to it. No. It will not be received,” Eneche said.
He noted that his ministry believed that government money should be used for government projects “and government things should be used for government things; and church money should be used for church things, not mixed together.”
“As small as the Glory Dome is right there, government money is not in it. From land to the building to everything,” he said.
Dr Enenche urged the commissioner to hand over the money to a government-approved religious body such as the Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board or the Christian Association of Nigeria who will give it to the people who need it.
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“This is so that we can retain our dignity as a body of Christ, retain our dignity as a church, and say what we need to say when we need to say it. And be able to say what we need to say when we need to say it,” he said.
But in a twist of events, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kebbi State Chapter, said it did not reject the N30 million donation from the state government.
In a statement, its chairman, Venerable Ayyuba Kanta, said: “We wish to make it clear to the general public and the state government that the N30 million gift was in support of the Kebbi State Healing and Deliverance Crusade held in Birnin Kebbi. The event was jointly organised by the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and the Kebbi State Chapter of CAN.
He admitted that the funds would be used to construct a perimeter fence at the Christian cemetery, recently approved by Governor Idris.
Kebbi State poverty rate, extremely high
Kebbi is one of the poorest states in Nigeria. Its multidimensional poverty rate stood at 79.1 percent in 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
According to the NBS, child poverty was, as of 2022, prevalent in rural areas, with almost 90 percent of rural children experiencing poverty.
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“Across the geo-political zones, the child Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows higher poverty in the North-East and North-West (where 90% of children are poor) and lower poverty in the South-East and South-West (74% and 65.1% respectively). The incidence of Child MPI is above 50% in all States and greater than 95% in Bayelsa, Sokoto, Gombe and Kebbi.”
Multidimensional poverty is an index that “measures the percentage of households in a country deprived along three dimensions –monetary poverty, education, and basic infrastructure services – to capture a more complete picture of poverty,” according to the World Bank.
Out of school children
Kebbi, Sokoto, and Yobe have the worst out-of-school children in Nigeria. In Kebbi, 67.6 percent of children aged 6–15 are out of school, meaning that nearly 7 out of 10 children in a state governed by Mr Idris do not go to school.
In 2022, SBM Intelligence ranked Kebbi as the state with the worst out-of-school children figures, with only a 1.2 percent attending early childhood education and 64.8 percent of both boys and girls out of school. The percentage of boys in Kebbi that were out of school as of 2022 was 62.3 percent, with girls’ standing at 67.2 percent.
“This is a state with worst poverty statistics, but what the governor felt he could do was to donate N30 million to a pastor or group that cannot improve people’s welfare. This is really a new low for the state and the nation whose people are under the heavy weight of penury,” said an Abuja-based economist and policy strategist, Dr Yahaya Mohammed.
“The money can pay 428 people a minimum wage of N70,000 and can also fund the school fees of at least 6,000 pupils in his state. This is why we suggest that people vote in the right people to drive development. But what do you see? Poor decisions during elections that keep them in poverty,” Dr Mohammed added.
Before becoming governor, Mr Nasir Idris had been a unionist and educationist. He was the national president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.
