Ignoring poverty costs too much

Earlier this year, Nigera was listed as Africa's fastest growing economy however the paradox is that as the economy booms, millions of Nigerians continue to wallow in poverty. Figures show that between 1980 and 2014,the percentage of Nigerians living below the poverty line, has risen from 30% to 67.98%. As if this staggering increase is not sufficient reason for every Nigerian to weep, It is estimated that by 2015 Poverty will further rise and Nigeria will have more people living below the poverty line than have both China and India.

        

        Photo: benchmarks.cancer.gov

The issue of the rising poverty is one that has been ignored for too long and as a result we as a country are now at the mercy of the consequences of our negligence. 

I first heard about the Almajaris on my father's return from a trip to Zamfara, a state in the northern hemisphere of Nigeria. He narrated how these children, some below the age of 6, called the Almajaris would chase any car in sight with broken plates, begging for any lose change. I was quite young and at the time all I felt was a sense of gratitude, to be more privileged than they were.

Plagued by curiousity, I recently researched the Almajaris. Much to my horror, I found that these children are now actively being recruited by the Islamist terror group, Boko Haram. It is unfortunate that these unsuspecting children, primarily as a result of their poverty, are now susceptible to ill-use. To accept that some of the Almajaris are now a part of Boko Haram is for Nigeria to accept that through our inattention to the poor, we have helped to facilitate the national mercenaries known as Boko Haram.

Nigerians in diaspora pay the biggest price for the tarnished international reputation of Nigeria, especially the ones struggling to live noble lives abroad. Coming in as the number one most fraudulent country in Africa, we Nigerians have quite an unfavourable reputation which precedes us. Although fraud or any other duplicitous means of survival must not be justified or appraised, we must be able to trace it to an underlying factor or factors rather. The correlation between crime rates and the percentage of people living below the poverty line is often seen. As the percentage of people living below the poverty line increases so does the crime rate within that country. We can then assume that crimes such as fraud are partly caused by the grave poverty that envelopes Nigeria. 

When looking at ways in which we as a nation can progress in the right direction, we must also recognise the steps that have already been taken to induce a positive change. The Jonathan administration must therefore be commended for establishing boarding schools in Northern Nigeria for the Almajaris; these schools will not only provide shelter and nutrition for these street urchins but a sense of belonging which the children before now have never been privileged to have. Minister Akinwunmi of the Agricultural sector has also launched a plan to add 20 metric tons of food to our home supply, a scheme that will also provide 3.5 million jobs. Considering the efforts of the government, I believe we have at least found the right paths to alleviate poverty. Relenting now on our efforts as a nation however would be foolishness.

 Looking at the statistics listing 64 million Nigerians as currently unemployed, even the blind will assert that there is still much more work to be done.

The consequences of high levels of poverty within any country are usually grave and Nigeria is no exception to the rule. Learning from past blunders and taking the right steps to ensure that we prevent the reoccurrence of such can only mean a brighter future for us all. 

Lots of love,

Feyikemi Rhodes