Nigeria was destined to be World Football Champions by the year 2020, what we achieved was world poverty champions. This we have momentarily lost to India in 2021 after a three-year reign though we are working assiduously to regain the crown. Also Nigeria was expected by others, others project these worthy aims for us, to be one of twenty largest economies in the world what we achieved was 31st from 26th position.
Professor Sheriffdeen Tella captured the quagmire we are in in his 18th July article published by Punch Newspapers, titled “Nigeria Refuses to Win Against’ Poverty and Hunger!” In the article he paraphrased a speech by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo warning us that the war against poverty was more difficult to overcome than armed rebellion. Like most advice the grand old man gave it was roundly ignored and here we are today poverty capital of the world!
Yet the warning signs were there. Not long ago it was make known that eighty percent of world’s poverty would reside in Democratic Republic of Congo DRC and Nigeria. What paradox, the two resource richest’ African countries housing eight out of ten of world’s poorest. Yet Nigerian leaders of thought harp on each region having resources that will transform their regions. That resources does not a country maketh rich should be the take away lesson of last few decades.
This lesson is known in other climes as other races in the world have stopped whining because they lost out in the resource lottery. While dependency on resources dulled the thinking of the resource rich it spurred the resource poor to put on their thinking caps and exit the poverty trap. These countries also escaped the upheavals that resources attract, while the DRC and Nigeria are bedevilled by crises over resources adding to the poverty count in both countries.
POPULATION GROWTH AND POVERTY: The accepted wisdom is high population growth rate not good, low growth good. There is ambivalence about this as countries that imbibed this demographic policy are now beset with an aging and declining population while Africa has a youth bulge that will deliver if incentivised. Otherwise as has been the case, the poverty indices will worsen. Nigeria is a two edged sword in this regard with an Afghanistan type demographic North and a South East Asia demographic South. One seems a liability the other an asset.
Today we are dwelling on how we have become poverty champions not how we will turn a liability, our Afghanistan North into an asset and avoiding an asset spiralling to a liability. Let it be made known that the Nigerian State is directly responsible for impoverishing the Nigerian peoples but not without the connivance of the peoples of Nigeria.
HOW NIGERIAN GOVERNMENTS CREATE POVERTY: Allow me illustrate actions governments deploy that directly swell the poverty numbers. To put food on the table for their families our unemployed youths offer community services by collecting refuse from homes rather than us dumping along the wayside. Enter the State and Waste Management boards and they plan to eliminate these young cart pushers and push them further into poverty. I have enjoyed the services of the cart pushers for about ten years and I was approached by agents of waste management board asking me to patronise them and demarketing the cart pushers calling all of them criminals.
Same with Okada owners another endeavour of impoverished Nigerians to earn a living and put food on table for their families. What does government do? Drive them off the roads and crush their okadas(Rufai’s vehicle was not crushed, Rufai I remain an admirer of yours). Saloons or sedans are not crushed okadas are. Then the okada owners are told to come lease some government minibuses to have them become enslaved to the people in government.
Kiosks and sheds set up by the struggling unemployed are destroyed for aesthetic reasons throwing the owners into penury. Forgetting that finer things of life become accepted by the general public when per capita GDP crosses a threshold of about $5,000, a figure Nigeria is receding from after achieving near $3000 per capita income. Gentlemen, peradventure you think I am an armchair critic of governments please read earlier writings of Nigeria attaining trillion dollar status and improving our per capita income.
We saw governments dispossess peoples of their land faking public use but selling to private entities. This is reason I say we the peoples are in sync with governments in impoverishing Nigerians. The land Use decree never handed ancestral lands to State governments, they were to mediate obtaining land for public use not to keep taking more and more land from either side of the original tract for any public road. We the people now opine “land belong to State Governments” The decree has not been amended and we have handed our lands to governors. Thank God the Magodo landlords were persistent and stayed on the case for almost forty years.
The dousing of endeavours of aspiring entrepreneurs spilt over into a Uber like business using motorbikes. Rather than our governments encouraging nurturing hustlers into the next Rabiu or Dangote our governments destroy them. They also go on to criminalise the okada riders, the cart pushers the crude oil refiners so as to hang them. Politicians now profit from poverty they create by weaponising it. They throw crumbs at some thugs who become their private militia. They are confident they can rabble rouse the electorate and admister stomach infrastructure on them.
These are direct ways our governments increase our poverty count individual by individual. The whole population gets impoverished by policy choices foisted on the nation. The current spiralling out of control of the Naira is the ultimate one impoverishing all us through what our president called alternate economic model made by CBN governor, choices that are supposedly people focused. Under the former economic orthodoxy the naira lost 100% of its value in 16years. Under the people centred Emefiele model the naira lost 400% of its value in seven and half years. Our president liked it and reappointed the CBN governor for a job well done. Meaning we are saddled with a cbn governor whose policies worsened our currency as never seen before. What a sure way to recover our poverty title.
To fiscal policies that ensures poverty reigns. One is our vile misconception of equating federal government revenues etc, with well-being of the larger economy. Yes they are linked but not always positively. With our current policies the relationship is an inverse one. Government revenue was down when they chose to borrow heavily without repairing the economy and a return to robust growth that will pay off loans.The chicken is home to roost and revenue can’t cover servicing of loans. Yet they were warned against pursuing loans with the state of our economy seven years back. Now in these hard times I am sure fiscal authorities are thinking of more taxes, meaning more burden on people and businesses and further depression, a catch-22 situation brought by fiscal rascality. In short if revenues go up from taxation the economy will come down.
WHAT TO DO: The CBN has started to pursue a program to restore long term health of our currency with its RT TO 200BN NON-OIL EXPORTS that should eventually lead to the influx of hard currencies and shore up our reserves leading to abilities to defend naira against currency speculators. Yet for reasons best known to him Emefiele refuses to go the whole hog, bite the bullet and eliminate arbitrage between official CBN rates and parallel markets. Is he dancing to his masters voice who loves his alternate’ anti-orthodoxy policies leading us to penury?
Our fiscal authorities have a bullets of theirs to bite, the subsidy, cleverly kicked down the road for the next dispensation after being thoroughly abused and inflated beyond recognition. Policy inaction despite having the political capital to act in 2015. However, we the governed are complicit because government was roundly hailed on each of their pauperising move. Yes we and our leaders walked hand in hand to receive the trophy.
