Fellow Nigerians, are you poor yet?
“God forbid!”
You wouldn’t be truly Nigerian if that wasn’t your response, perhaps in your mother tongue. I say a silent “Amen” to your prayers, but we can both agree that there is a likelihood of this happening (if you are unaware that it has happened) and that’s why you are reading this article to see for yourself.
Poverty Capital of the world
Indices used in assessing the poverty (or prosperity) level of nations include GDP per capita and poverty rate. With a GDP per capita of $2,083 for 2020 and a poverty rate of 40.1%, we stand way ahead of a number of nations in not being the poorest nation in the world and not having the worst poverty rate on the continent as we are better than South Africa (55.5%) and a few other African countries.
For a nation that boasts Africa’s largest economy, which has consistently grown its ease of doing business and is ranked as the 11th top producer of oil globally, it seems a misnomer that Nigeria is addressed as the poverty capital of the world, but that seems the lot of Africa’s most populous black nation and for good reason too.
Table was created using information from World Bank and Wikipedia.com
Nigeria has over 84 million people living in poverty. 91 people in every km2 of land in Nigeria are poor, making Nigeria the largest concentration of poor people in the world, hence the poverty capital of the world.
For context, there are more poor Nigerians in Nigeria than there are South Africans (60 million); more poor Nigerians than there are English people (66 million); than there are French (67 million), or Germans (83 million), on the face of the earth.
Nigeria’s population of 211 million is barely 15% of China’s 1.4 billion but Nigeria has 10 times more poor people than China. Nigeria’s poor people are double the entire population of the Australian continent even though Nigeria’s area of 923,768km2 is barely 10% of the continent’s 8,600,000 km2.
So how does this affect you, you may ask.
The contagion of poverty
The over 84 million Nigerians living in poverty in Nigeria are most likely not poor because they enjoy the thrills of poverty, nor because they are “lazy youths” who refuse to work. Rather ironically, Nigerians are referred to as one of the most industrious and hardworking people on the face of the earth; they are among the best minds in every field of human endeavour. One only has to look at how many Nigerians and Nigerians by origin are doing great things at home and in the diaspora.
While corruption, unemployment, infrastructural deficit, inequality, insecurity, inflation and poor economic planning are generally regarded as the cause of the rising poverty of the nation, they take root in two major factors – a unique blend of the incompetence of the ruling class, and the relative indifference of her citizens.
“Nigeria is too rich to be poor and too poor to be rich.” This statement credited to a top US diplomat in President Clinton’s administration bears witness to how much belief the international community has always had in our ability to either be the best or the worst as a nation.
The present ruling class, despite press briefings to the contrary, have efficiently supervised the return of many Nigerians to poverty. Riding on their campaign promise to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, they have successfully doubled the square of the unemployment rate from 4.31% in 2015 to a forecast of 32.5% in 2021 while underfunding the education sector.
Multitasking, the ruling class was able to achieve this feat while battling two recessions in a 5 year period, worsening insecurity, systematic brain drain of some sectors, worst inflation in decades, massive borrowing, and consistent devaluation and support of the weakening Naira as they seek the elusive dream of maintaining a single exchange rate.
Suffice to say that most of these problems were self-inflicted.
The citizens, on the other hand, have been models of adaptability and stoicism. They have stayed the course failing to realize that their standard of living is consistently falling because they rationalize that they still enjoy the same staples they have enjoyed over the years; wilfully blind to see that FMCG manufacturers have evolved to accommodate them through miniaturization and price discrimination by producing sachet or lower quality goods.
Half loaves of bread, sliced tubers of yam and rotten tomatoes (commonly known as esha) becoming common sights in the markets goes to show how much more adapted the markets have become to the needs of the average Nigerian – the poor Nigerian.
Nigerians who had savings have watched the rates they earn crash in the same way business persons have had to contend with banks increasing rates on their loans while the government continues to levy every transaction, adding to the overheads of these businesses who already find survival difficult.
The indifference shows in the reluctance Nigerians have to speak up about their diminishing fortunes as we all watch the schism between the rich and the poor widen. Most middle-class watch with measured satisfaction thinking they are on the side of the rich not knowing they are on the verge of poverty.
A medical bill, a failed business deal, loss of income, ransom for a kidnapped loved one, false accusation by the police, an accident, an act of God… It could be anything. The push or the drag to poverty comes sooner than later in an already poor economy rife with so many pitfalls.
Take heed and plan your finances. It begins with the question, “Are you poor yet?”
I couldn’t agree more with this article, even more so when the sad truth is I am part of that 40percent but hoping I won’t be for long.
Lovely Piece
Beautiful piece! Informative and we’ll written.
Kudos.
This is so true of the Nigerian situation. Beautifully written piece.
This is so true of the Nigerian situation. Beautiful piece of work.
This is just apt.
I am bewildered, to say the least, by the state of the nation, Nigeria.
I have reached a point where I am not even sure that my high moral up-bringing had not being an impendiment (even to me as an individual living in Nigeria) to breaking away from all these vicious cycles of, for wont of a better all-encompassing adjective, ‘everything wrong’ with Nigeria: from leadership, to followership, from economic to (again, for that one word) all-round decadence and backwardness in all imaginable sections or fragments of the society.
I often recall how during my university days, I was one of the few who thought that if one left the shores of this country for greener pastures or just to escape the ever growing failures and worsening state of affairs of the nation, he or she was simply running away from being part of nation building. I would ask: “If all of us left the country, who would contribute to its growth and development, who?” Who would make better days for our loved ones and future generations? I was always taking pride in the fact that I was going to be part of the solution, not the problem nor be among the ‘get-aways’ whom at the time, I considered to be taking the easier way out, not that they were actually doing any wrong.
Today, having gotten older and through it all to witness how all manner of corruption has eaten deep and continue to be the lot of our dear country day in day out, leadership tenure after leadership tenure, I cannot help but wonder if it was not I who got it all wrong. For an example from many different and diverse examples, I recall traveling from Midwest to the Western part of the country to join my pairs in Junior Secondary School class one, how my guardians fueled their Peugeot 504 salon car at eleven Naira/litre and the man joked to his wife about the rising cost of petrol. Nigerians living in Nigeria through these topical experiences your article has only broached — broached because the state of affairs is not just snuffing the life out of Nigerians, but are also draining their mental strength as well as clogging what is left of their faculties. Like you, I see that people do not know where to draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not anymore. They just move that line and go on holding unto their breath and living on the fringes of life occasioned by a sovereign nation with self-imposed, self-propelled lack of vision, a country with seemingly no bright horizon — only somewhat bright outside it’s shores.
Our nation is one that can be likened to a sinking bounty ship going down with all of its crew and passengers wide awake and aware but clinging to their luggage and loot. The fault lying with both crew and passengers.
I am bewildered, to say the least, by the state of the nation, Nigeria.
I have reached a point where I am not even sure that my high moral up-bringing had not being an impendiment (even to me as an individual living in Nigeria) to breaking away from all these vicious cycles of, for wont of a better all-encompassing adjective, ‘everything wrong’ with Nigeria: from leadership, to followership, from economic to (again, for that one word) all-round decadence and backwardness in all imaginable sections or fragments of the society.
I often recall how during my university days, I was one of the few who thought that if one left the shores of this country for greener pastures or just to escape the ever growing failures and worsening state of affairs of the nation, he or she was simply running away from being part of nation building. I would ask: “If all of us left the country, who would contribute to its growth and development, who?” Who would make better days for our loved ones and future generations? I was always taking pride in the fact that I was going to be part of the solution, not the problem nor be among the ‘get-aways’ whom at the time, I considered to be taking the easier way out, not that they were actually doing any wrong.
Today, having gotten older and through it all to witness how all manner of corruption has eaten deep and continue to be the lot of our dear country day in day out, leadership tenure after leadership tenure, I cannot help but wonder if it was not I who got it all wrong. For an example from many different and diverse examples, I recall traveling from Midwest to the Western part of the country to join my pairs in Junior Secondary School class one, how my guardians fueled their Peugeot 504 salon car at eleven Naira/litre and the man joked to his wife about the rising cost of petrol. Nigerians living in Nigeria through these topical experiences your article has only broached — broached because the state of affairs is not just snuffing the life out of Nigerians, but are also draining their mental strength as well as clogging what is left of their faculties. Like you, I see that people do not know where to draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not anymore. They just move that line and go on holding unto their breath and living on the fringes of life occasioned by a sovereign nation with self-imposed, self-propelled lack of vision, a country with seemingly no bright horizon.
Our nation is one that can be likened to a sinking bounty ship going down with all of its crew and passengers wide awake and aware but clinging to their luggage and loot. The fault lying with both crew and passengers.
What can we do please.
To address incompetent ruling class to be replaced by competent class.
To revive the citizens consciousness to be active to fight for better governance?
Nigerians have seen nothing yet. This is just the beginning of the gradual decent into something vile. This must happen for the seek of those few who are striving for better. The vast majority of our people deserve exactly what we are experiencing, we have planted the seeds of hatred, tribalism, nepotism, lazy mindedness and thieving is the norm in governance and in the governed, , murder, religious fanaticism, bigotry, low morals, low ethical conduct has been our lot and more for generations . So let’s feast in our work. Welcome to your work on earth in Nigeria. A nonsense race of people that would not accept responsibility and so is perpetually a victim. Victim and downtrodden people who prefer thieves and criminal as their leaders. Hell.
The piece, well written, is quite depressing. Like one of the commentators, I refused to leave Nigeria and today, I’m full of regrets. My moral upbringing does not permit me to resort to “ways and means” but to answer the question on what we can go as citizens, the only way forward is to confront these evil leaders, which will be very difficult, because they have perfected the art of divide and rule, as well as stealing the ballot.
Still, we must ensure that identified corrupt leaders don’t end up in elected positions, while we identify sincere and purposeful people we can support to win elections. We must also ensure that those whose mission in govt we don’t know, especially legislators are not voted in – void their ballot papers – a lot of them don’t campaign and only piggyback on the presidential/gubernatorial campaigns; they go into office unknown and so owe the people nothing!
Lastly, let’s educate ourselves on our rights and the law and insist on it. Nigerian leaders love it when we’re ignorant, they tell us lies to befuddle our brains and we clap for them. Sad.
Beautiful piece