The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Professor Charles Soludo has decried a situation where only eight percent of the Nigerian population is controlling ninety percent of the nation’s wealth.

Speaking at the maiden District conference of Rotary 9142 in Awka, Soludo said that for the country to come out of the ugly situation, twelve people need to exit poverty every twelve minutes.

He said: “As we try to clean the water, the rate at which it is splashing is higher than the rate of pumping the water."

“Few individuals are buying private jets, while the majority of the people are sliding into poverty. Poverty and inequality are the main challenges facing humanity.

“In 2015, the United Nations, UN, set up the Sustainable Development Goal, SDG, to reduce extreme poverty globally by the year 2030. To achieve this goal, 90 people have to leave poverty every minute and to achieve this in Nigeria, 12 people have to leave poverty every minute. Unfortunately, seven people in Nigeria are entering poverty every minute.

“To get people out of poverty, they must be empowered and one of the most important mechanisms to empower people is education, which used to be the ladder to bridge inequality.

“Development partners are eager to achieve the SDGs, but where will the money come from? As individuals, we can do something to change the narrative as no one is too poor to give something and no one is too rich to receive.

“In Nigeria, we are creating two classes of citizens namely, the children of the rich and the children of the poor. But I say to the rich that sooner than later, all those high walls built by the rich to stop the poor from having access will become meaningless because the rich will longer be able to sleep as long as the poor are awake.

“If you give the children of the poor the opportunity available to the children of the rich, they will excel like the children of the rich.”

According to Soludo, even the large chunk of those employed to work and move the nation forward were actually unemployable.

While saying the development is capable of causing sleepless nights for the elites, the ex CBN governor observed that the main difference between the rich and the poor is opportunity.

He cited the major problems causing poverty in the country to include urbanization, desertification.