Punch Editorial BoardA new report by the World Bank that the Northern states account for 87 per cent of the country’s burgeoning poverty rate is dreadfully familiar. The report tallies with the United Nations Poverty Index for the decade to 2014, which featured only two North (Central) states among the 18 states of the federation that had poverty rates of 33.1 per cent and below. All other 17 northern states had rates ranging from 51.6 per cent (Plateau) to 91.9 per cent (Zamfara) to be in the bottom 18. Persistently high levels of poverty in the North are not borne out of federal negligence either. Most Northern states have not domesticated the CRA, while the incumbent President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.

Source: Punch February 17, 2020 23:15 UTC