Opinion: That poverty may become extinct in Nigeria

by Muhammed Abdullahi Tosin

NIGERIA POVERTY

Introduction

Almost half of the world’s population, comprising over three billion people, is extremely poor, surviving on less than 2.5 dollars a day, according to the Global Issues. UNICEF holds that 22,000 children die each day in some poor remote villages on the planet. Perhaps more dreaded than global warming, AIDS, global terrorism and nuclear threat, poverty is a life-threatening quandary which exposes individuals to hunger, ill-health, servitude, dejection and often opens the doors to an ocean of criminal tendencies.

This article contends that though it would not be easy, financial insufficiency can be eradicated from the world. Statistics support this view and some countries have successfully fettered poverty. It seems safe to posit that with the right attitude, concerted efforts and cooperation of all stakeholders, any country can overcome poverty.

Poverty: a door to many evils

Poverty has multifarious causes: overpopulation, non-availability of jobs, illiteracy, slothfulness and pilferage of public funds. In its International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, the World Health Organization has classified extreme poverty as a behavioural disease (2011: Z59.5). In other words, an extremely poor chap is ‘somewhat insane’.

True, financial servitude is a ‘disease’ which breeds other ailments, causes psychological instability, fleeces its victims of the priceless values of humanity and makes criminal acts seem tempting. In Nigeria, 112 million people (61%) live on less than a dollar per day, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and over ten million almajiris (child beggars) constituting  about 7.2% of Nigerians wander the streets of Northern Nigeria begging for alms. This explains why the country, particularly the northern region, is brimming with crises.

The Niger Delta uprisings sprouted when concerted oil spillage hindered farming and fishing – the two traditional occupations in the region – and engendered pervasive penury. The Boko Haram unrest has equally been linked to extreme lack and hunger.

I believe a good number of the dreaded threats to the world’s corporate existence either stem from extreme poverty or continue because of insufficiency of funds to combat them. If there were no poverty, there probably would have been no illiteracy, dire hunger, piracy, kidnapping for ransom, oil bunkering and a host of other crimes. Had adequate financial resources been available, global warming, diseases and global terrorism would most likely have been brought under reasonable control.

Effacing extreme poverty

Poverty reduction entails many different measures which include prevention of future poverty and alleviation of present poverty. Efforts directed at improving food production and distribution which alleviate poverty should be complemented by those which tackle its root causes such as education and purposeful developmental policies by governments.

Owen Barder in his 2009 paper, “What Is Poverty Reduction?” published by the Center for Global Development asked a pertinent question. Which should take precedence: “alleviating the effects of poverty for 100 people for a single year or permanently lifting 10 people out of poverty forever?” I believe it should not be a choice between the two. Although both reduce poverty, the first option is not sustainable; while the second benefits few people.

Any reasonable poverty alleviation scheme must be sustainable and broad, not temporary or restricted in outreach. The focus should not be to hastily lift 20 people permanently out of poverty this year but to continuously, albeit gradually, lift as many people as possible permanently out of poverty over a period of many years.

Unlike Nigeria, my country, Malaysia and Singapore are two countries which have successfully combated poverty. Although Malaysia (from which Singapore was carved in 1965) gained her independence in 1963, three years after Nigeria’s, both nations are much better developed and with higher living standards.

Singapore with an area of about 710 square kilometres and a population of 4.9 million grew, according to its first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, from being a third world country to a first world country in just one generation with 91.3 billion dollars Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006. Also commendably, Malaysia, with an area of 330,000 square kilometres and a population of 28 million has a GDP of over 103.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to The Economist Pocket World in Figures (2006).

These sharply contrast with Nigeria’s disappointing GDP of 58.4 billion U.S. dollars, particularly against the backdrop of her outsized area of 924,768 square kilometres and her vast population of about 160 million people. And this is a country which prides herself as the top exporter of crude oil in West Africa, a nation endowed with an abundance of natural resources!

While the size of Singapore is about 1,302 times smaller than that of Nigeria and her population about 32 times smaller than Nigeria’s, her GDP is 32.9 billion dollars more than Nigeria’s. This justifies the UN Human Development Index which lists Singapore, with 90.2 on a scale of 0 to100, among the top 25 countries with the highest living standards in the world and Nigeria, with an index below 50, among the poorest.

One reason for this wide gap is transparency and the massive investment in education by Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia’s literacy rate is over 80% while Singapore’s is above 96%. Yet, they respectively expend 7.9% and 3.7% of their GDP on education. By contrast, Nigeria’s literacy rate stands at 60%. Despite that unacceptably low status, only 2.5% of her GDP goes to education – a bad situation worsened by habitual pilferage and looting.

Nigeria too should thread the path of education and embrace public transparency. There’s no other way.

Conclusion

The goal of confining poverty to fiction books is a shared one. No single entity – governments, NGOs or individuals – can successfully shoulder it. All hands must be on deck and all stakeholders must play meaningful complementary roles. Granted that eradication of extreme poverty is the first item of the MDGs and the fifth principle of sustainable development, collaboration is essential if humanity must attain the target of reducing poverty by 50% between 2000 and 2015.

Lest we forget, the road is still far, the terrain rough, the time short and the resources scarce. But the goal is quite lofty; it is well worth the colossal sacrifice. If we are ready, we can end poverty.

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Muhammed Abdullahi Tosin is a professional freelance writer and the CEO of Naija Writers’ Coach. He posts essay contest announcements and teaches how to write winning essays at www.NaijaWritersCoach.com. You may follow him on Twitter @Oxygenmat

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. We have rich men in our contry that are gredy nd selffishness.let us put our hands together nd pray to our God to help us change our leader.

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