A veteran journalist, Adebayo Onanuga, on Monday urged the Federal Government to create a social security scheme to cushion the effect of poverty.
Onanuga made the call while declaring his intention to contest the Ogun East Senatorial District position in the 2015 general election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria at the flag-off of the campaign in Ijebu-Ode, Onanuga said social security was fundamental to economic stability.
He said statistics revealed by the United Nations Development Programme states that “about 70 per cent of Nigerians were living on below one dollar daily”.
He added: “With a welfare programme in place, it is possible for Nigerians waking up without thinking about where the next meal will come from.
“It should not be a problem for any Nigerian who loses his job to think about how he will pay his house rent.
“It should not be a problem for a man who has worked for 35 years to 40 years serving his country to worry about life after retirement.
“Health delivery services are still generally expensive as many Nigerians cannot afford basic healthcare.”
According to Onanuga, Nigeria should seek to emulate the British model where laws to establish welfare programmes were created and enforced.
He said: “Our country should begin to look into instituting welfare programmes that would have positive impact on our people.
“It is frustration and desperation that force the hands of youths into vice and the first way to cushion the effects of unemployment is through social support.”
Onanuga said his desire to contest was driven by his passion to tackle the challenges of poverty, unemployment and infrastructure deficits.
“Politics is not a do-or-die affair for me, but I believe that our nation is condemned to more decades of poverty until we put the right people in the right positions,” he said.
NAN reports that Onanuga had been the Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief of The News group, publishers of the A.M./P.M. newspapers and The News magazine since 1993.
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