The Nation Newspaper

Tag: poverty

  • ‘How to tackle poverty, unemployment’

    Nigerian Employers’  Consultative Association (NECA) has- warned that the country’s attempt at addressing insecurity, poverty, unemployment and other challenges will remain a mirage without restructuring.

    Its outgoing Director-General, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, argued that restructuring Nigeria would allow states take full responsibility for their resources and manage same to create wealth for their citizens.

    States’ dependence on the monthly federal allocations has made nonsense of the idea of a federal structure that Nigeria set out to operate, he said.

    Oshinowo said: “Nigeria must restructure to allow states take responsibility for certain aspects of this economy. Even if you have zero-level corruption, best of economic policies, if we don’t restructure, which will create wealth for the people, those policies won’t work. Today, it is only in Lagos and Abuja things seem to be happening. There are no economic opportunities for the citizens in other states. So what you find is a situation where Nigerians are moving out of those states to Lagos to find means of survival. This is not good for the economy.

    “The federating states must be able to provide opportunities to engage their citizens and fight poverty. This is why restructuring is necessary.”

    Oshinowo said the non-implementation of the agreement between the stakeholders and government was one of the things he regretted the most as NECA DG.

    He said one thing is to secure a space to engage with the government over an issue, another thing is for the government to implement the agreement.

    He said: “Engagement and implementation should be seen as a matter of right. It has been an ongoing battle in the private sector. Such thing cannot another in some country.

    “When you look at other countries, you will see a good nexus between the living standard of the citizen and the government. It’s very important to know the purpose of being in government which is to improve the living standard of the people. Any measure of performance or relevance of government is derived from how well the citizens are doing, no other measures.

    “This issue is not about excuses on why government policies have not worked. It’s not the business of the citizens. The citizens’ expectation is that we expect our welfare to be improved upon, how you go about it is not our business. All we expect is that on a regular basis, we are seeing improvement.

    “But in our own environment (Nigeria), that nexus is simply not there. Excuses are often given as why policies are not working. I think we need to change from that narrative. Any government that has not been able to provide evidence that it has lifted his people from poverty has no business in government.”

  • ‘How poverty keeps girls out of school’

    The phrase ‘period poverty’ may sound strange to some persons but it constitutes a major health challenge to the girl-child in Nigeria. In this report, ROSE OKEKE examines its effect in rural areas and how a not-for-profit organisation has taken up the task of assisting victims

    Period poverty, the struggle and inability to afford quality sanitary pads, is just one of the major challenges that young girls and women face in Nigeria as a result of major economic hardship.

    Period poverty poses a substantial threat to less-privileged schoolgirls who do not attend school during the entire duration of their menstrual periods. According to a UNESCO report in 2014, one in ten girls in Sub-Saharan Africa misses school during her menstrual cycle, which ultimately amounts to 20% of a whole school year.

    The report reads: “A focus group conducted among women in Nigeria, for instance, highlighted that almost all adult women, young women and girls used rags during menstruation. Many older women had tried disposable pads but did not find them comfortable, and therefore preferred using rags.”

    Also, the issue of lack of basic hygiene services such as adequate latrines and toilets in schools throughout the nation further promotes the absence of girls from school during periods.

    A 2015 UNICEF survey indicated that only 25% of school toilets/latrines in Nigeria had sinks and soaps, most toilets in filthy condition. The ratio of latrine to students was 1 to 297 for girls, and 1 to 1216 for boys, as opposed to the recommendation.

    In addition to missing school, period poverty also leads to participating in transactional sex among young girls and older men, in order to obtain financial resources to purchase sanitary products. This ultimately contributes to teenage pregnancy and forces the girl to leave school entirely.

    The Sanitary Aid Initiative Nigeria, founded by Karo Omu in January 2017, has distributed over 9,300 sanitary pads to Nigerian schoolgirls in 8 states across all geopolitical regions, and raised over N4,ooo,ooo for the cause.

    Karo, in an interview with Abuja Review said: “Sanitary Aid Initiative started after a conversation on Twitter about the 100% increase in pad prices during the 2017 recession. I couldn’t believe that the prices had doubled in only a year. My first thought was what less privileged girls and women would do in such a situation, so we decided to do something about it.

    “So far, 9,317 packs of pads have been distributed, 1,000 of which are reusable pads.

    “We have reached 7,397 girls and women so far. Currently, we have had outreaches in 8 states. Over the next couple of weeks, it will have surmounted to 10 states.”

    Aisha, an SS2 student and beneficiary from Ogun State, shared her experience in an interview that before the Sanitary Aid Initiative arrived at her school, she had been using tissues and cloths in place of pads, a practice she described as difficult.

    When asked if it affected her schoolwork and attendance, she replied: “I do come to school, but sometimes when the pain is a lot I just skip class. I can’t express how happy I am but I’m very grateful for the pads that Sanitary Aid gave us.”

    Another beneficiary of the initiative, Boluwatife, an SS1 student, complained about the increase in prices of pads making them less and less affordable. She said that the help received from Sanitary Aid Initiative made her “very, very happy.”

    In addition to the distribution of free sanitary products, Sanitary Aid also engages in positive sex education and orientation for both boys and girls in order to sensitize them about puberty and ease off the stigma surrounding it.

    “Many of them are aware of what’s happening within their bodies but sometimes they have been led to believe some myths with regards managing menstrual pain, their cycles,” Karo told The Nation.

    “For some, it’s not ignorance, they just don’t have access to products. So even when they are choosing to use cloth or skip school, it’s not because they don’t know what to do but because they can’t afford to do it.

    “I always say that is even more important than the products. We tell the girls about sanitary hygiene, period positivity and sometimes even sex education. We also involve the boys, encouraging them to be more receptive to such conversations. One time, on our first visit, a young boy was happy to share that he gave his sweater to his friend when she was stained. The atmosphere we create makes this an easy conversation to have.”

    According to the founder, Sanitary Aid Initiative is currently in the process of manufacturing reusable pads, and partnering with sponsors who share the same vision and goal.

    “For every stakeholder or potential stakeholder, it is important for us all to understand the effects of period poverty on girls from missing school to self-esteem issues to even health issues from poor period management.

    “The onus is on those with the means to actively and deliberately change the face of menstruation management in our country. We have so many impressionable young girls and boys and targeting them with the right information early enough helps the future,” Karo stated.

    She called on the federal, state, and local governments to contribute to the cause by prioritising the hygiene needs, especially of girls and women with little or no income at all. She implored the government to take a leaf out of the books of other countries that are already succeeding in this area.

     

  • Nigerians enjoined to focus on consumption to end poverty

    Food safety activist Prof. Dele Fapohunda has enjoined Nigerians to focus on the consumption of wholesome food to boost their health .

    In a statement to mark this year’s World Day Against Extreme Poverty, Fapohunda said aflatoxin contamination in staple crops is one of the biggest challenges that can directly reduce the local availability of safe and nutritious food in country.

    He said it is important to capture extreme poverty within the context of consumption of unwholesome food, because health is wealth.

    The Dean, School of Science and Technology, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, said the consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated food has been described by the United Nations (UN) under the late Dr Kofi Annan as an index of malnutrition.

    He said: “Malnutrition is recognised as an emblem of poverty. Aflatoxin which is common in mouldy and stale food items, is the only chemical of biological source listed as a Group 1 carcinogen, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Its repeated consumption with food and feed, at minute doses incite liver cancer in man and livestock.”

    Fapohunda who is also a former president of the Mycotoxicology Society of Nigeria, said the consumption of unwholesome food is common among the poor who embrace such by circumstance, rather than choice. He said that is why “a series of avoidable morbidities can arise from immune compromise that can result from such exposure”.

    He added: “In Nigeria, aflatoxin has been discovered in most stored crops of alimentary importance, at objectionable levels, igniting a scare that should naturally attract government attention through effective regulations, capacity-building and awareness campaigns.

    “In the forthcoming elections, Nigerians are advised to vote for only presidential candidates that recognise the importance of food safety as a critical component of food security. Such candidate should come up with a measurable road map to enhance human health and fair agro-export through sustainable stakeholder–driven interventions.”

  • How insurance can break poverty cycle

    Insurance is one of the primary solutions identified for breaking the poverty cycle in pusuit of the Financial Systems Strategy (FSS2020) goals. But, two years to the lapse of the timeline, experts warn nothing may be achieved if the government fails to tune up the industry, reports Omobola Tolu-Kusimo.

    Without insurance, the poverty and ill health cycle of any country will continue. This has led to the recognition of insurance in the Financial System Strategy or FSS2020 as crucial to breaking the cycle.

    Everyone is exposed to risk either through normal everyday existence or the enterprises that they may embark upon. Insurance enables peace of mind, which enables people to take more risks with expected  higher returns.  Insurance also acts as stabilisation against shocks in case risks materialise.

    For example, health insurance access reduces the likelihood a household has to sell some of their productive assets, like cattle, in order to take care of the health costs of any family member.

    Therefore, the importance of insurance in achieving financial inclusion vision by 2020 and ending the cycle of poverty in the country cannot be over-emphasised.

    Financial inclusion simply means making insurance services readily accessible to all and providing access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet the needs of every individual.

    Currently, poverty and unemployment remain major challenges facing the country. As 2020 beckons, the Federal Government has shifted its focus on insurance operators and the regulator to achieve the strategic goals.

    The target is that by 2020, the number of adults in Nigeria with access to payment services will increase from 21.6 per cent to 70 per cent, savings will increase from 24 per cent to 60 per cent, and credit will increase from two per cent to 40 per cent.

    It is also anticipated that insurance penetration will grow from less than one per cent to 40 per cent and pensions from five per cent to 40 per cent.

    At present, Nigeria lags behind inclusion targets across every measure and is not on track to meet the targets by 2020.

    Experts say operators and regulator in the industry would need to brace for the purpose of saving mankind. They need to pay attention and invest in inclusive insurance markets because of their promise for the future and government expectations thereof.

    Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) 2016 survey estimated people living under extreme poverty at 60 per cent and pegged the rate of unemployment at 24 per cent due to economic growth’s inability to trickle down to the poor.

    The survey also showed that the total adult population, that is, individuals from 18 years and above in Nigeria, is 96.4 million.

    The questions, however, posed by industry operators, the regulator and other stakeholders at the 2018 IICC National Insurance Conference in Abuja were: Can the country eradicate extreme poverty & increase shared prosperity? Can technology and insurance help us on this mission? And can we achieve financial inclusion vision 2020 in two years?

    Founder and Chairman, Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and Managing Director, SystemSpecs, John Obaro, are positive. The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), insurance operators and other stakeholders also believe so.

    But despite all agreeing that the poverty cycle can be eradicated by 2020 by leveraging the use of technology, many noted that the danger in achieving this goal is the fact that the government is yet undecided whether or not to use technology to drive financial inclusion.

     

    Experts’ views

    Ovia challenged NAICOM, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on financial inclusion.

    He said for the financial inclusion vision to be achieved by the Federal Government, NAICOM, NCC and the CBN needed to agree and approve the use of mobile telephones to sell micro insurance to the poor and excluded adults in the country.

    He said before now, the three regulators have found it difficult to approve mobile telephones to be deployed by insurance operators to sell insurance to the public.

    Ovia, who spoke at the conference, said while NAICOM has released a new micro insurance guideline in this regard, this will not change anything if operators would still need to sell the product in the traditional way.

    He decried the fact that the industry has not started using mobile technology for micro insurance, noting that this has been the bane to deepening insurance penetration and achieving financial inclusion.

    He said: “NAICOM has a new guideline on micro insurance, but it has not been deployed through mobile telephony. The Commission can’t deploy micro insurance through the traditional ways. It should be done through new means, which is technology.

    “The NAICOM, NCC and CBN need to approve mobile telephony for the distribution of micro insurance urgently.”

    He pointed out that evidence has shown that appropriate financial services can help improve household welfare and spur small enterprise activity while economies with deeper financial intermediation tend to grow faster and reduce income inequality.

    Similarly, it is established that digital technologies can play key role in addressing poverty eradication within a balanced mix of responsible regulation, relevant skills and accountable institutions.

    He highlighted some examples of financial products, such as credit, savings, insurance and payment systems.

    “Credit helps to improve the productivity of micro enterprises or to cover health expenses; savings contributes to pay for children’s education, health care or meet other financial obligations; insurance offers protection against the financial impact of unfortunate events such as illness, accidents, burglary/theft etc; and payment systems facilitate easy movement of funds to complete financial transactions for example sending money from far away cities or abroad to family members back home.”

    He said micro insurance cannot be deployed successfully, using the conventional method, adding that the only system which have been tested and trusted is the mobile technology.

    According to him, insuring life will take about 40 years if the old method of deploying insurance is used, but with mobile technology, 12.5 per cent contribution to the nation’s GDP can be achieved.

    He further said to achieve 80 per cent target of financial inclusion by 2020, financial experts should be more innovative and creative in their business.

    The Zenith Bank chairman was of the view that insurance remains one of the best tools to break poverty circle and ill-health in the country.

    Commissioner for Insurance Mohammed Kari urged insurance operators to organise information technology forum where all stakeholders will be brought together to enhance decision making.

    He said the insurance sector plays a vital role as it helps to reduce the poverty line, helps entities and individuals manage their risks and protects them from negative adverse effects of unforeseeable events.

    Speaking on the financial inclusion strategy, he said: “In 2012, Nigeria launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) to reduce the percentage of adults that are excluded from financial services from 46.3 per cent in 2010 to 20 per cent in 2020. The strategic goals are driven by a broad range of co-ordinated interventions, including simplified Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, agent banking, micro-insurance and consumer protection principles.

    “In the area of microinsurance, NAICOM has been working with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit Gmbh, GIZ of Germany and our own Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA). The relationship with these two bodies have culminated in a well-documented diagnostic study of the Nigerian market, several seminars, workshops and trainings on microinsurance for both operators and staff of NAICOM and the industry at large.

    “In December 2017, the Commission went a step further and invited the Toronto Centre, Canada, to conduct a training session in Abuja for insurance operators and regulators in the West African sub-Region.”

    He said financial inclusion is the collective responsibility of all and called on stakeholders to support the drive of the sector as the regulator forges ahead in creating an enabling environment for insurance penetration and increasing access to financial services and products.

    Obaro highlighted the role of technology in achieving financial inclusion and how it can be leveraged to attain set targets in Nigeria.

    According to him, there is need for the Federal Government to leverage technology for financial inclusion.

    “Technology has demonstrated a strong potential to help improve access to and quality of financial services for the unserved and underserved. Exciting technology innovation is happening in emerging markets and very much in Nigeria through new products and services launched by start-ups and through partnerships with banks and corporates.”

    He, however, said the Federal Government is undecided about the model (bank-led or MNO-led) to adopt for financial inclusion.

    He said policy makers, including NAICOM and NCC, needed to facilitate policies that reconcile financial stability and financial inclusion.

    “They also need to be intentional in financial literacy efforts and have constant line of engagement with industry,” he averred.

    Kari said a cursory look at the access to financial services in Nigeria indicates that there is a huge deficit in terms of financial inclusion, which insurance is a veritable part.

    “Statistical analysis indicates that Nigeria requires aggressive and strategic developmental efforts towards reaping the benefits of her abundant potential. This has become an imperative rather than an option if ordinary Nigerians, who have no access to financial services must be brought to the fold,” he said.

    Economic Associates Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ayodele Teriba said people have to first sort out other pressing needs before thinking of insurance.

    According to him, it is only a population that has means of income that can buy into insurance.

    He siad it is only an individual that has a monthly income that can afford to buy insurance.

    According to him, citizens  of a country where its population is absolutely poor will find it difficult to think of insurance.

     

    Power of digital finance

     

    According to Bill Gates, in a country where three quarter of its people have mobile phones, digital finance offers the potential to boost the economy from top to bottom.

    Right now, more than 50 million Nigerians are at the whim of chance and informal economy. With access to digital financial tools, they can cope better with disasters that threaten to wipe them out, build assets and gradually lift themselves out of poverty.

    “Consider the impact this would have on businesses. Out of the 37 million micro, small, and medium enterprises in Nigeria, more than 99 per cent are micro. According to the best estimates, digital financial services will create a 12.4 per cent increase in Nigeria’s GDP by 2025. Meanwhile, oil accounts for about 10 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP…,” he said.

     

    Distribution strategy

    According to Ovia, digital distribution is a key component of enabling financial inclusion. For example, just to insure one million lives, the traditional distribution mechanisms can take up to 40 years if not more in some developing countries.  However, the same number of people can be reached in less than one year via mobile operators.

    “Prudential Plc our global partner at Prudential Zenith, achieved a  rapid take up of micro-insurance products via mobile technology in Ghana. Their mobile offering saw a take up of about 1.5 million people in just over 12 months.

    “In 2014, micro-insurance coverage had reached three million people, an increase of over 200 per cent from 2009. This figure was largely due to a loyalty insurance scheme delivered through a partnership between Airtel, MicroEnsure and African Life Assurance Zambia,” he said.

    He said there are many players on the global financial space via digital channels.

    “It is not just the fancy names, such as Hippo, Lemonade, Oscar and Nutmeg that define these players. They are seriously disrupting the insurance and other financial models to bring financial products to people originally considered uninsurable. These players may be on a global scale in other markets, but they are beginning to look at African markets as well.

    “We have already sighted the innovative example of Prudential Life Insurance Ghana, which achieved 1.5 million policies in 12 months, using mobile phone technology. Prudential Zenith, Nigeria together with other insurance companies is now ready to deploy micro insurance products in the use of mobile phone technology as soon as both the NCC and NAICOM could collaborate and approve to do so.

    “I would like to encourage the NCC and NAICOM to collaborate and approve the use of mobile phone technology in distributing micro insurance products in Nigeria. We must be aggressively innovative, if we are to achieve the targeted goal of 80 per cent financial inclusion by 2020 in Nigeria,” he said.

     

     

  • Poverty: Revisiting Theresa May’s concern

    Sir: Ahead of her August 29, visit to Nigeria, British Prime Minister, Theresa May, remarked that 87 million Nigerians live on less than $1.90 a day, making Nigeria “home to more very poor people than any other nation in the world.” It is interesting how the statement attracted public attention almost as if it is a new discovery. The truth is that Ms. May could have made the statement to justify why her visit to Nigeria was a priority for UK government. Whether such a justification is validated with reference to details of bilateral relations between UK and Nigeria is a different matter entirely.

    Somehow, the temptation to interpret Ms. May’s statement based on political assessment of performance of Nigerian government tends to be the dominant consideration. Be that as it may, it is however important that we remind ourselves that since 1999, national poverty headcount has never gone below 54%. The most recent was the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report of findings of 2010 Harmonised National Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) released on February 13, 2012, which indicated that poverty in Nigeria increased from 54.4% in 2004 to 69% or 112,518,507 in 2010. With estimated population of about 200 million now, poverty headcount of 87 million as highlighted by Ms. May would mean significant reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line in Nigeria to 43.5% from 69%. This would represent estimated decrease of 25.5% or using the 2012 numeric value of 112.5 million, a reference that more than 25 million Nigerians escape from poverty between 2012 and now. This could as well be the revelation.

    How true would such a revelation be?

    Somehow, May’s remarks have been politicised completely out of context and the dominant interpretation is suggestive of the failure of the current government.

    It is important to acknowledge that notwithstanding whatever political assessment we may want to pass, there is today some structured responsive anti-poverty programme under the office of the Vice President. Designated as National Social Investment Programme, it ensures credible method of targeting the poor and vulnerable for the reduction of poverty, effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, among others. Predicated on the need for a more sustained and inclusive economic growth, reduced poverty rates and closing the wide inequality gap between the rich and the poor, it is anchored on four pillars, namely, N-Power, Cash Transfer, Home Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

    Removing the toga of politics out of the discussion of poverty in Nigeria would reveal that the National Social Investment initiative of the current government is one of its landmark successes. It is partly a recognition of this that facilitated the return of Abacha loot with the condition that they are invested in the poor through conditional cash transfers. This is besides the considerable budgetary provisions of N500 billion for the four pillars of social investment, N40 billion for SDGs, N65 billion for reintegration of transformed ex-militants under the Presidential Amnesty Programme and N45 billion for Federal Initiative for North-East under the 2018 Federal Government budget, among others.

    Depending also on our political dispositions, we are likely to emphasise or dismiss all these. No doubt, there would be limitations, just as there are good scorecards. A lot more would be required to improve it. However, it is to the credit of current administration that the management of the Federal Government Social Investment Programme is insulted from partisan considerations, unlike in the past. Citizens’ engagement would be needed to boost capacity of delivery to achieve reduced poverty.

     

    • Salihu Moh. Lukman,

    smlukman@gmail.com.

  • We’ve lifted Nigerians out of poverty, says Osinbajo

    Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had lifted millions of Nigerians out of poverty in the last three years.

    He was apparently reacting to a statement by British Prime Minister Theresa May that Nigeria had the largest population of poor people.

    Osinbajo said in the same period, the administration laid a solid foundation for a resilient and competitive economy, provided infrastructure and opened space for private investment to accelerate growth and development through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) initiative.

    The vice-president, who spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, at the 17th Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning (NCPD), identified “social investment initiatives” as the vehicles used to pull Nigerians, in their millions, away from the poverty trap.

    He was represented by the Minister of Budget and Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma.

    Osinbajo said the government would invest in Nigerians and give them a better life, adding: “Billions of naira have been committed to tackling infrastructural deficiencies, while resources are being utilised and projects prioritised to ensure transformation of the country.”

    Speaking on the NCPD meeting with the theme: “Accelerating the implementation of the Economy Recovery and Growth Plan: The Role of Stakeholders,” he noted that the Federal Government was committed to ensuring that it delivered on the objectives and targets of ERGP.

    According to him, the administration via the ERGP had revitalised fertiliser blending plants, which assisted Nigeria to save over 200 million dollar annually.

    “We are proud of the successes recorded in the agricultural sector. The revitalisation of our fertiliser blending plants alone has saved the country over $200 million annually in foreign exchange and over N60 billion in budgetary provisions for fertiliser subsidies.

    “This has also made it possible to purchase fertiliser at prices up to 30 per cent cheaper than previously available. We are importing less rice today than we did a few years ago.

    “I am glad to note the partnership some states, such as Kebbi and Lagos have entered into in a bid to support the agricultural development and food security objective of the ERGP. I expect to see more of such model agricultural collaboration among other states,” he said.

    The vice-president identified the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), security and inflow of foreign investments as areas where the ERGP had helped the country to experience success.

    “I am aware that the National Committee on Export Promotion is implementing a plan to enhance export promotion and economic diversification in line with the Zero Oil Plan (ZOP) initiative. We have budgeted N44.2 billion in the 2018 budget for the establishment of Special Economic Zones in the country’s six geo-political zones to drive local manufacturing and exports.

    “We are also paying close attention to the mining sector by reinforcing the Mining Regulatory Agency. About N644 million has been voted for this in the 2018 budget. We are ready to set up a National Gold Purchase Scheme. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is advancing discussions on the modalities for gold purchase towards enhancing liquidity in the sector.

    “I believe that to accelerate implementation of the ERGP and deliver on its target of 7 per cent GDP growth by 2020, we need massive private investment. And that underscores the significance of the ERGP Focus Labs. I am pleased to note that this exercise has yielded positive outcome.

    “In the past few months, we have taken a number of decisions that will further facilitate the realisation of the massive private investments unlocked in these labs. I think the states must be commended for their willingness to cooperate and assist in making these investments to happen.

    “From our reports, some of the states have responded positively to a number of approvals that were required from them. The success of the Labs is a testimony to what partnership between the public and private sector can achieve when they work together for public good,” he added.

     

     

     

  • Wabba: unemployment major contributor to poverty

    The inability of the  political class to tame unemployment has not only led to a steady rise in social vices, it has made the country to become one with many poor people, President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has said.

    He accused the country’s political leaders of not doing enough to create jobs that could put poverty at bay.

    He lamented the inability of the ruling class to fashion out policies that can drive sustainable development.

    He said: “Other groups and other countries have continued to manipulate our policies. We cannot on our own fashion out policies that can change our situation.”

    He argued that with the resources that God has given to Nigeria, there is no excuse for not succeeding in endeavours that other nations had made remarkable progress.

    Wabba said: “What is happening in our country is an unfortunate one because we have more than resources to develop our country. How we cannot take the huge advantage that our population has given to us is a mystery. I think that leadership challenge is the greatest problem we have as a nation. We are incapable of developing and implementing policies that can propel economic prosperity. Sometimes, I am tempted to ask what the problem is with the black man. There is virtually no African country that has peace and there is no way we can achieve development where there is no peace. Nigeria is assuming the capital of poverty of the world is worrisome and a position we should not be in in the first place.”

    Wabba lamented that the poor and non-regular payment of salaries to workers are formidable factors that are driving the growth of poverty in the country.

    The NLC helmsman, who alleged that about 350 Nigerians took loans of about N5.8trillion, which is haemorrhaging the economy,  called for the prosecution of the culprits.

    He said: “In the United States  that allowed bailout fund to rejig its economy, those that benefited from that largese have since paid back.

    “Why are those who took loans to revive their businesses not paying back? While we call for the repatriation of the money, they should also be prosecuted.”

    For Wabba, poverty would continue to ravage the continent until genuine peace was achieved and drum of war silenced.

     

  • The Poverty of Wealth

    Thinking of Nigeria as a bastion of poverty seems a paradoxical absurdity. Something simply does not add up. How can a nation so prodigiously endowed with natural resources, so impossibly blessed with clement weather, a nation that still has sixty four per-cent of its land mass uncultivated, be fingered as being in the grip of extreme want and poverty?

    But this is the reality that has hit us in the face with the latest report of the Brookings Institute. Nigeria has now become the poster boy for Biblical poverty and extreme privation in Africa. It is the greatest scandal of human development. If Nigeria was put together to explain why brains and ability matter over natural resources and hospitable environment, the explanation cannot be more convincing. Like a feckless and profligate child from a background of immense wealth, Nigeria has been toying with poverty for a long time. It has now arrived with vengeance.

    Poverty is the condition of absolute human want which dehumanizes earthly existence to a feral fiasco. Anybody who has seen human-beings foraging for food in junk yards and refuse heaps, or taking shelter in abandoned dung hills can be forgiven for thinking that only a thin line separates humankind from their animal cousins. Indeed in conditions of war and extreme social stress, the line is often blurred, and humanity slips back into the state of nature.

    For some countries or human societies, it never rains but pours. Problems pile upon problems. While we are still grappling with the problem of a federal executive embroiled in a bitter power struggle with the legislature and the carnage occasioned by the lingering feud between herders and sedentary farmers, while inter-elite disharmony begins to assume an ominous nation-disabling dimension, a more terrifying social and political incubus has crept upon Nigeria.

    With the news this past week from the respected Brookings Institute that Nigeria has slipped behind India with eighty seven millions of its people living below the poverty line, it is clear that the ruling elite in Nigeria has been issued with an ultimatum to come up with a comprehensive blueprint for social amelioration and inclusive growth or face the grave consequences of mass poverty and radicalized pauperization in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.

    Let the filthy rich gird their filthy loins in this land. Social vengeance does not discriminate. The goal is not justice but bitter revenge. But let it also be said right away that with the messianic populism of its henchman and General Buhari’s puritanical distaste for corruption, this government has its heart in the right place. But without theoretical anchor and rigorous conceptual scaffolding, messianic populism is just mere hell-raising without any foundation in concrete reality.

    On their own, messianic populism and railing against corruption are mere protestations and declarations of desire. They have never lifted any society or nation from the intricate web and trap of endemic poverty. The government’s hasty dismissal of the Brookings report suffers from insufficient intellectual weight and empirical justification .It must therefore be summarily dismissed as lacking in merit.

    To be sure, the thought of Nigeria being unfavourably compared to India may not be sweet music to the ruling party. With its abysmal slums, its fetid streets, suppurating open sewers and sheer human squalor, India often presents a picture of human society at the desperate end of its tether. But nobody ever imagined that it was going to be easy transiting from a superstitious and deeply feudal society to modernity.

    Yet compared to the Equatorial distemper which roils tropical Africa in general and Nigeria in particular as well as the ethnically inspired ego-fuelled politics, India has many things going for it, particularly the placid nature of its people, the discipline and forbearance engendered by Hindi philosophy and a nationalist elite which shuns obscene wealth and its narcissistic display. More importantly, India might have been colonially conquered but it was never culturally and ideologically subjugated.

    Poverty and the poor have always been part of the human condition. It is there in the holy bible as well as the Qumran. No human society has been able to completely eradicate the scourge of poverty. To ever believe that this is possible is to indulge in communist fantasy. Yet every sane and sober society has always come up with a strategy to combat the more extreme manifestation of poverty, particularly the problem of mass hunger and staggering idiotic inequity. This is why both Jesus Christ and the Holy Prophet were social crusaders and avenging titans against injustice and inequity, unlike the prosperity boondoggle of our modern day religious charlatans.

    The history of humanity is also the history of human struggle against poverty and socially or politically inflicted deprivation. Injustice is a bye product of human advancement. As part of the socialization of humankind as a higher species, it became evident that certain societies and certain individuals were always going to be more adept at deploying human labour to valorize natural resources.

    But this does not mean that those less adept should be allowed to perish or face extermination from sheer want and human fecklessness. The poor may not produce, but as history as shown, they can procure social convulsions. The rich cannot peacefully enjoy their rich cuisine without catering for the palate of the poor.

    In the animal kingdom, it is the Alpha male, due to sheer physical prowess and superior intelligence, that provides solace, succour, security from hunger and marauders until it is dethroned by a more powerful wannabe. Things are pretty stratified and set in marble. A lion cannot give birth to a mouse. Nature does not succumb to abnormalities when it comes to security and the food chain.

    In modern societies, the state is the Alpha male. As socialization proceeded apace, division of labour kicked in. From the revolt of Spartacus, the great slave leader of ancient Rome, through the thirteenth century Magna Carta, the great revolutions that concussed Europe, America and Asia, the most momentous upheavals in human history have been struggles against want and injustice.

    Many modern societies, with ancestral memory frowning and rumbling in the background, have learnt their lessons from these epic rousing of the human spirit. Before the advent of colonization and nascent capitalism, it was easier to address the problems of hunger and extreme want in essentially communitarian and traditional African societies. Nobody was allowed to go hungry. The extremely poor were accommodated in the social scheme and could always scrape by. The Yoruba people famously noted that once hunger is banished from poverty then poverty is dramatically diminished.

    But the insinuation of the capitalist logic of development with its new forces and relations of production as a corollary to the imperative of human advancement has spawned a new concept of ownership and a vast new global tribe of deprived and hungry people completely delinked from the food chain and without much prospects of social amelioration. Hordes of the economically disabled are routinely unleashed on society by the new mode of production. These are the people famously referred to by Frantz Fanon, the Martinique-born psychiatrist, as the wretched of the earth.

    To be sure, this is not a problem peculiar to Nigeria and Africa. An extant survey famously indicated that the best period to live in England was in the mid-sixteenth century or the Elizabethan Age. It was a period of literary, cultural and philosophical renaissance in which food was available to everyone. But soon thereafter as the Industrial Revolution began to take firm hold of the society, the sparks began to fly eventuating in royal decapitation in England. In the subsequent French Revolution the scarcity of bread featured as the principal leitmotif and casus belli.

    The western countries have learnt their lessons. They have come up with nationalist elites that do not toy with the plight of the poor or the business of poverty amelioration no matter their party affiliations or ideological hue. In Britain, France and the United States, whenever right-wing conservative governments, insisting that wealth must be created before it can be shared, go too far in their social brutalization of the poor and in rolling back the state, you can be sure that they will be replaced with left-wing governments with a sense of social justice and state responsibility to the wretched and afflicted of the land.

    Unfortunately, Nigeria has proved incapable of throwing up such a nationalist elite or a durable democratic state with structured and disciplined political parties that will correctly read the mood of the people. When Nigerians in their collective anger dismissed the PDP government in 2015, they thought they were electing a genuinely reformist left of centre party capable of redressing the thieving incompetence and social depredations of the ruling party. Three years later but for the anti-corruption drive and feeble capacity-rebuilding, their hope and expectations have not been met.

    Going forward and as a way of plotting our way out of this historic eclipse of the greatest Black conglomeration on earth, we can now summarize with the Brookings report and the Indian paradigm in mind. Firstly, the objective reality suggests that mismanaged oil wealth has turned into a social and political doom for Nigeria with unearned wealth in private pockets fuelling obscene disparities between the very rich and the very poor which in turn propels savage anger, social rancour, ethnic malice, insecurity, the rise of deviant behaviour and social cannibalism.

    Second, Nigeria is prey to an unproductive and endemically corrupt political elite which relies on rent-seeking and predatory extraction. Consequently, it is incapable of adding elementary value to our immense natural resources, not to talk of coming up with visionary capacity-building for engineering growth and boosting knowledge production through the judicious husbandry of human capital.

    Finally, Nigeria is held hostage by a dominant political caste trapped in a feudal time-warp which is bent on dragging the rest of the country down the alley of medieval servitude and prehistoric peonage. Given the current political shenanigans and fixation with elections, unless urgent reformers rise up within its midst to rescue it from its historic miseries or sympathetic strangers combine to nudge it in the right direction, the Northern Question will continue to loom large in the consuming tragedy of the Black race that Nigeria has become.

    India does not export oil. Unlike Nigeria, India is a fairly homogeneous country without the religious, ethnic and cultural fault lines which exacerbate political, social and economic tensions in Nigeria. The killing plains of Jos, Benue and Taraba, which are a function of colonial malice combined with cultural, religious and economic rigidity, are simply unimaginable in contemporary India. The Indian political elite shun obscene wealth and its garish display. This allows them to think productively about the plight of the nation.

    Finally, India is blessed with an old feudal caste which sees the way forward in embracing the future and not in hugging the past. At independence, Pandit Nehru, a self-assured scion of the old Indian nobility and a Cambridge graduate to boot, decreed that if Indians could not produce their own clothes or come up with their own indigenous automobile, then let them continue to trek and walk naked.

    It can now be seen why India with its humongous population is making steady progress in rescuing its people from the poverty trap while Nigeria is not. The Brookings report is a wakeup call and a warning signal. If care is not taken, Nigeria will soon be declared the worst place to live on earth. That would be a real shame, if we still remember what that means.

  • Olaopa to leaders: build strong institutions to end poverty, others

    EXECUTIVE Vice Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) Dr. Tunji Olaopa has advised African leaders to build effective institutions as the only way to rescue the continent from underdevelopment, poverty and stagnation.

    He gave the advice in his keynote address at the 18th Africa Conference at the University of Texas, Austin United States (U.S.) at the weekend.

    The theme of this year’s conference is “Leadership and Institutions in Africa”.

    The conference, which is an annual gathering of intellectuals from across the world, discusses thematic issues that are germane to the understanding of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora.

    It was convened by Prof. Toyin Falola, a professor of History, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair Professor in the Humanities and teaching professor at the University of Texas.

    Olaopa, whose keynote address was entitled: “Transforming Africa’s Institutions: the Challenges of Politics, Development and Reform,” said it is only the institutionalising imperative that will unite African leadership and citizens into a comparative development of inclusive institutions.

    The public administration expert argued that deepening poverty, which even the celebrated jobless growth of the yesteryears did not alleviate, reduces the chances of elections that are issues-based, which in turn limits the potentials for emergence of transformation in most African countries.

    He explained that the chances of African countries breaking out of their logjam nonetheless demands dynamics that will, in time, create a new generation of detribalised and cosmopolitan leaders.

    According to him, African leaders should be distinguished by their managerial sophistication and policy intelligence and, therefore, inspire by example and drive critical movements to rebuild institutions to create capable developmental states.

    He urged then to distil compelling value propositions in African political economies that could shape new ideologies with regard to the role of the state relative to market as African alternative to Washington Consensus inspired neoliberalism.

    Olaopa said:  “Achieving this momentum requires that African governments remodel the business of governance through institutional renewal and a cultural adjustment programme-inspired values reorientation. This new wave will create shifts from short-term policy orientation to more longer-term concerns; from certificated illiteracy education outputs trends to skills orientation cum reflective practices and from profligacy and rabid consumerism to an investment orientation.”

    He emphasised that Africa’s transformation suggests that there is a new generation of institutions and values-propelled leaders, who are sophisticated enough to be successful.

    “Reject foreign economic and development paradigms that are at odd with Africa’s interests and future;  generate local economic frameworks that, for instance, encourage local consumption;  scale up investment in education and the creation of a patriotic human capital invested with the will to transform Africa; facilitate a significant collaborative endeavours that transform Africa’s economic and technological future through research and development (R&D); and  put in place several institutional reform strategies that lead to the emergence of world class public service around which the visions and programmes of various African governments could be translated into veritable governance projects,” he said.

    As part of the activities marking the closing ceremony, Olaopa was honoured with the Thabo Mbeki award for Public Service and Scholarship.

    The award took Olaopa by surprise as it was kept as a closely guarded secret by the organisers of the conference,  until the announcement at the closing banquet.

    Thabo Mbeki Award for Public Service and Scholarship is awarded to an African, who has distinguished him or herself in the public or private sector. The recipient of the award must be a high calibre individual with unblemished record of public service or the private sector.

    The awardee must be someone who is committed to the project of African renaissance and African unity and must have made significant contributions to scholarship.

  • Why poverty remains with us (2)

    Why poverty remains with us (2)

    Agriculture is the third leg of the tripod upon which the author anchors his anti-poverty remedies. He avers that agriculture has the propensity to provide cheap but high quality food for the people, serve as a source of employment and income generation thereby serving as a major contributor to foreign exchange earnings and it also serves as a market for the industrial sector.

    The author’s work in this chapter is indeed like a free feasibility study and consultancy service for anyone intending to go into cassava and palm oil farming. Closely related to agriculture in the author’s estimation, is mining which according to him has an array of economic potentials for all the states of the federation because all the states have abundant mineral resource endowments which they can develop for the prosperity of their citizens.

    I am fascinated by the richness of the policy recommendations contained in Chapter Seven. Particularly the bold assertion by the author that Nigeria’s best poverty eradication programme is back-to-farm, i.e. agriculture. In this wise, he also recommends the substitution of the current National Youth Service Corps Scheme with the Youth Agricultural Revolution whereby the country will be divided into different zones of at least ten, each zone being used for different kinds of crops depending on suitability. In this programme, the corps members will be made to serve on government farms annually, while retaining those who wish to continue after the service year.

    Leadership, in the estimation of the author, is a critical factor in the eradication of poverty in the land. Leadership at all levels must be transparent and empathetic towards the people such that government’s investments into poverty alleviation programmes are judiciously utilised for the end they meant.

    Also fundamental is the author’s recommendation of an inclusive, learner-centred early childhood education. This is in his belief that the foundation of our education as presently run, does not and cannot engender the needed development as it is incapable of building our children into the kind of adults that will be transformative in their approach to the society and to self. In other word, our basic education requires re-engineering. This approach should run through the other levels of education.

    Equally revolutionary is the author’s recommendation for the establishment of entrepreneurial institutions across the country. This he said has the propensity to effect a change in the mind set of the youth. I subscribe fully to this recommendation in the firm belief that it will fill the vacuum created by the inadequacies of the existing conventional institutions in terms of their skills contents.

    My experience as a teacher and a former Director of entrepreneurship development in Federal University, Lokoja has exposed me to the weakness in the curricula of our university education as it relates to entrepreneurship education.  Although the philosophies of most departments take some cognizance of skills, this is too negligible to achieve any meaningful long term national developmental impact.  This may not be entirely blamed on the curricula but also on the weak link that infrastructure and equipment constitute in the system, that is, apart from the bloated population of students in some programmes.  Importantly therefore, we could argue that there is an unacceptable gap between theory and societal need which our education is yet to address and resolve.  If this is addressed, we shall have graduates who can solve societal challenges, employ people, create prosperity for themselves and help to eradicate the scourge of poverty in the land.

    In other word, if our education is not skills based, that is, if our education is not built on problem solving, then there is an unacceptable yawning gap between our philosophy of education and its delivery.

    On the whole, Senator Olabode Ola’s Why the Poor are Still with Us is packed full with both theoretical insights and actionable recommendations that, if followed, will initiate a genuine process of curing Nigeria of the toga of chronic poverty and usher her into the realm of prosperity, which will eventually eradicate or sufficiently alleviate poverty in the land. When this is done, we should be gathered here in no distant future for a follow up publication which might be titled: Why the Poor are no Longer with Us’. It is on this note that I wish to recommend this book to departments in our institutions of higher learning concerned with the teaching of entrepreneurship, economics and related courses. The Federal Government and all its agencies of intervention in job creation, entrepreneurship, agriculture, mining, small and medium scale businesses as well as their counterparts in the states should access this book for insight. Similarly, individuals desirous of gaining understanding of the issue of poverty and strategies to combat it should obtain the book as a true companion and tool of navigation.

    • Prof. Ibileye lectures at the Federal University, Lokoja.