APC Senator Mocks Fed Govt Over New IMF Report On Poverty In Nigeria

The senator representing Kaduna Central senatorial district in the National Assembly, Sen. Shehu Sani, has thrown what appears to be a dig at the Federal Government following a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that 80 million are living below the poverty line in the country.
He recalled the reaction of the government to the latest Transparency International (TI)’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which showed that Nigeria dropped from 136 in 2016 to 148 in 2017.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, had described TI’s report as “misleading and unfair”.
“The government is still wondering the criteria or facts used by the anti-corruption watchdog to arrive at its very misleading and unfair conclusions in its assessment of the federal government’s efforts in this anti-corruption crusade,” Shehu said.
He added, “We wonder where they got their facts from. At a time, they are alleging increase in corruption under this government, the whole of Africa is applauding by choosing President Buhari as the continental champion to lead the fight against it. Nothing can be more eloquent than this.
“In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TI’s patrons have expressed against the Buhari administration.
“This notwithstanding, facts are facts, and those facts won’t cease to be facts even if you don’t care to pay attention to them.”
Reacting to the IMF report in a Thursday tweet on his verified Twitter handle, Sani said, “The new IMF report about increasing level of poverty in Nigeria tallies with d ‘official’ figure of over 80 million now categorized as poor. As usual, what some will do now is to call @christinelagard all sorts of names & browse thru d names of the Board members.”

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