The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS has said 82.9 million Nigerians (40.1 percent) of the population are poor.

This was revealed in its 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria study released on Monday.

The stat involved data on household and individual demographics (age, gender, marital status, among others), access to education, health and basic services, employment, assets, and income.

According to NBS, with Nigeria’s 40.09 percent poverty rate, the nation still have 12.85 percent poverty gap index and 5.63 percent poverty squared gap index.

On the urban and rural scale, Nigeria recorded 18.04 percent poverty rate in the urban areas, 4.47 percent gap index and 1.68 percent gap square index, the in the rural areas the study shows 52.10 percent poverty rate, 17.42 percent gap index and 7.78 percent gap square index.

On the state by state basis, Sokoto and Taraba led with 87.73 percent and 87.72 percent poverty rate respectively, while Lagos and Delta state led the chat on the less poverty ravaged states with 6.50 percent and 6.02 percent.

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Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician currently serving as the President of Nigeria, in office since 2015. He is a retired major general in the Nigerian Army and previously served as the nation’s head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d’état. The term Buharism is ascribed to the Buhari military government.

He unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of Nigeria in the 2003, 2007, and 2011 general elections. In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the March 2015 general elections. Buhari won the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. This marked the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate in a general election. He was sworn in on 29 May 2015. In February 2019, Buhari was re-elected President, defeating his closest rival Atiku Abubakar by over 3 million votes.

Buhari has stated that he takes responsibility for anything over which he presided during his military rule, and that he cannot change the past. He has described himself as a “converted democrat”.

Muhammadu Buhari was born to a Fulani family on 17 December 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, to his father Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chief, and mother Zulaihat. He is the twenty-third child of his father. Buhari was raised by his mother, after his father died when he was about four years old.