China has stated that Nigeria must invest in education, food, housing, security if it wants to eradicate poverty .
The Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun speaking in Abuja on Monday, August 22 at the unveiling of the Hausa edition of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book, ‘Up and Out of Poverty’ said there are many lessons from the book for Nigeria as both countries share so many similarities.
The envoy, while noting that the book was written in 1988 and contain the thoughts of the current president on how to eradicate poverty, revealed that it was the book that the president used in eradicating extreme poverty between 2012 -2022.
He said poverty revolves around two basic needs and three guarantees.
“For the basic needs, we have first, food and secondly, clothing. For the three guarantees, we have compulsory education, basic medical care, and safe housing,” he said.
He advised that: “Nigeria needs to fix the educational sector. The country has a lot of dropouts and we all know that without education, a country cannot move forward.
“Nigeria needs to fix the medical challenges it is facing to eradicate poverty.
“The measures that China took were to boost the economy. The economy is a decisive factor to eliminate poverty. Nigeria needs to rely on its strength, natural resources and create more jobs for its citizens.”