Poverty rate alarming — someone phoned me 30 times to beg for N3,000, says Adebayo Shittu

Adebayo Shittu, former minister of communications, has bemoaned the poverty rate in the country.

Speaking during an interview on Africa Independent Television (AIT), Shittu said rising poverty in the country has led to the monetisation of elections and vote trading.

The politician narrated how someone rung his phone more than 30 times to beg for N3,000. He added that at the time, he did not have the sum requested.

“Yesterday, before I left home in Ibadan, somebody phoned me from Bauchi and begged me for N1,000. He said for two days, he had not eaten,” Shittu said.

“Again, a week ago, somebody also called. She wanted N3,000. At the time she wanted that money, unbelievably, I didn’t have that money. She called me 30 times in one day.

“It’s not my business to doubt the poverty of such people calling. So when you go to such people to ask for their votes or support, they don’t care what you’re capable of doing. What they are interested in is what they can get out of you today.”

Asked if it is possible for a former minister not to have N3,000, Shittu said former ministers do not receive salaries after leaving office and that he did not steal government funds.

Shittu was minister of communications from 2015 to 2019 in the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

He was a member of the Oyo house of assembly. He was also the Oyo governorship candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 elections.