The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, recently painted a grim and pathetic picture of economic inequality in Nigeria and many other countries in Africa. May, who was visiting Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa said in Cape Town, South Africa, that 87 million Nigerians were living below $1.90 a day, making Nigeria “home to more very poor people than any other nation in the world.”
Only recently, a publication by the World Poverty Clock said Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty in the world. In other words, Nigeria has replaced India as the world’s poverty capital.
The British Prime Minister said that “Africa is home to the majority of the world’s fragile states and a quarter of the world’s displaced people” and that extremist groups such as Boko Haram and al-Shabab were killing thousands. The PM stated: “Africa’s ocean economy, three times the size of its landmass, is also under threat from plastic waste and other pollution,” adding “Most of the world’s poorest people are Africans and increasing wealth has brought rising inequality, both between and within nations.”
Therefore, the Federal Government must put in place strategies that will enable it to eradicate poverty in the country. It must deepen the availability of financial support to the poorest of the poor and make sure that the financial support gets to them every month
The British Prime Minister has spoken the truth. Unfortunately, the Federal Government does not seem to be concerned about the grim truth of the worsening poverty situation in the country. It is saddening that while much of Nigeria is thriving with many individuals enjoying the fruits of a resurgent economy, as much as 87 million Nigerians still live on less than $1.90 a day, thus making Nigeria home to more very poor people than any other nation in the world.
On the average, seven people are entering extreme poverty every minute in Nigeria while nine people are entering extreme poverty every minute in the Democratic Republic of Congo. To turn around the worsening poverty situation in Nigeria, experts posit that at least 12 people must leave poverty every minute.
The explosion in the poverty situation in Nigeria is attributable to many factors. First, is Nigeria’s population which is growing faster than its economy. Between 1990 and 2013, the country’s population increased by 81 percent. By 2050, UN forecasts that Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world, only behind India and China. Second is the lack of population policy aimed at controlling population explosion in the country.
Others are the high rate of unemployment in the country, corruption, the lack of basic amenities, like good water, electricity, roads and other modern amenities as well as the difficulty in doing business, all of which have added to the harsh realities of the economy and worsen the conditions of millions of people living in poverty.
Meanwhile, the government has observed that the country’s population is rising by four million per year. This is unacceptable as it is a major reason for the galloping rise in population growth in the country and appropriate measures must be taken to reduce the population growth rate.
According to the World Poverty Clock, 44.2 per cent of Nigeria’s population (about 86.9 million people) lives in extreme poverty. This means that over 89 million people in Nigeria live below $2 (N684.95) per day, while India, which used to have about 218 million extremely poor people, now has about 71.4 million people living in extreme poverty (5.3 per cent of its population), it stated.
India was also identified as capable of escaping poverty by 2030 despite having a population about seven times that of Nigeria in 2016.
The clock also showed that instead of being on track towards attaining the United Nation’s first sustainable Development Goal (end poverty), poverty is rising in Nigeria.
In arriving at its report, the Clock counted the gap between the actual number who have escaped poverty since end-December 2015 and the hypothetical number of who should have escaped for the world to be on-track to reach the global target of ending poverty by 2030.
Rather than taking urgent measures to redress the situation, the Federal Government dismissed the report saying it was not based on any recent household survey on Nigeria’s poverty level. Now, the World Poverty Clock report has been vindicated as its report has been confirmed by the World Bank and the U. K government.
Going forward, there is no doubting that poverty can be eradicated in Nigeria if all levels of governance in the country are serious about it. Therefore, the Federal Government must put in place strategies that will enable it to eradicate poverty in the country. It must deepen the availability of financial support to the poorest of the poor and make sure that the financial support gets to them every month.
Among other measures, the Federal Government must adopt family planning methods that will limit the number of children per family to between two or three children. It must also provide every Primary Health Centre with the necessary family planning drugs and adequately train them to be able to advise families who come for consultation on family planning.
It must also promote the creation of jobs by the private sector. In doing this, it must support every legitimate business that can employ at least ten people by ensuring that they get bank loans at single digit interest rate and by enabling both the Bank of Agriculture and the Bank of Industry to set up funds that will provide start up funds for those willing to go into small scale businesses.
