THE President, Major Muhammadu Buhari ( retd.) , has expressed concern that a large percentage of Nigerians currently live in various stages of poverty .
He said the prospect of the population sliding further into extreme poverty was real.
According to a statement on Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity , Femi Adesina , the President spoke in a recorded video message to a virtual high- level United Nations’ meeting on trends, options and strategies in poverty eradication across the world .
Buhari said his regime was working hard to reverse the trend.
The President cited the recently developed Economic Sustainability Plan, aimed at stimulating the economy amid the COVID- 19 pandemic, as one of the ways his regime intended to reverse the trend.
He said the plan would extend protection to very poor Nigerians and other vulnerable groups through pro- poor spending .
Buhari warned that COVID- 19 pandemic had the potentials of reversing decades of progress achieved in the efforts to eradicate poverty globally .
He said that was why his regime was taking steps to revive the nation’ s economy in the wake of the pandemic.