Weekend Arena - Unnecessary Drama Here And There While Nigerians Live In Extreme Poverty!

 Before you finish reading this article, about 30 Nigerians would have been admitted into the league of extremely poor people in the world, living on less than N874 in a day. 

I stumbled on some startling information from the World Data Lab, the body behind the World Poverty Clock. Living up to its name, the World Poverty Clock, I noticed, is programmed to analyse data regarding the welfare of citizens in a clock-ticking pattern. Each second, one would see how people are slipping in and out of poverty depending on which side of the divide one is located. Unfortunately, Nigeria is not sitting well there. 

The figures and projections are simply bad.


Out of the estimated 205 million people living in Nigeria, their data said 105 million persons or 51% of the population are living in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty, according to their definition means living on less than $1.9 in a day. By today’s exchange rate of N460 to one US dollar, that means N874 a day; N6,118 a week; N24,472 a month or N293,664 in a year. 

 The average okada operator, who goes home with about N3000 in a day and the minimum wage earner, who gets N30,000 in a month are by far off this margin. In their projection, Nigeria can get out of this inglorious state, by taking a certain number of persons (0.3) out of poverty every second. This could get the country onto an acceptable threshold. But Nigeria has not been able to do so; rather 4.4 persons slip into poverty every minute. That means before you finish reading this article, about 30 Nigerians would have been admitted into the league of extremely poor people in the world, living on less than N874 in a day. 

With the global number of people living in extreme poverty hovering around 712 million, it means Nigeria’s 105 million extremely poor people, constitute about 14.7% of the total figure. For me, there is no way to describe this, other than assuming that ‘poverty is rubbing pancake on our faces’.



Before we begin to dwell on the fable that 2020 was ruined by the economic lockdown occasioned by COVID-19, let us reflect on the fact that African countries remain some of the least impacted as regards the scourge, and perhaps weigh it against the huge population, so afflicted by poverty. In the face of all these, Nigerians are for once experiencing one of the worst inflationary trends of all time, with prices, changing in a manner that reminds one of a ticking clock. Food stuffs are so expensive today in our markets, further leaving these 105 million persons more vulnerable. 

But the most demoralising aspect of this mess is that our leaders seem unperturbed by these realities. Of course, they will wave these statistics away as false, but they have remained indifferent in confronting these challenges. In the face of this towering destitution, what seems to be occupying their minds at the moment is 2023. Although 3 years away, they are all strategizing across party lines to grab power and probably do nothing with it, apart from lining their pockets at the expense of the people. 

With the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, moving from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, the two leading parties, in the past two days, have neglected the troubling realities of the common Nigerian to engage themselves in a war of words over who gained or lost, as if Dave Umahi’s presence or absence has ‘changed the price of Abakiliki rice’.

May be the government of Nigeria has not realised this fact: the more the poverty gap in the country widens, the more the country would be burying her scarce resources in the fight against insecurity, because poverty breeds nothing but chaos. By now, there should be concerted efforts to bridge the gap, even if it means declaring a state of emergency as regards the poverty situation. From the executive to the legislative arm of government, such projections by the World Poverty Clock should be giving them sleepless nights if they were truly genuine leaders, moved by the plight of their subjects. 

Under normal circumstances, we should be hearing the National Assembly deliberating on what urgent steps the government should take to mitigate this scourge in the short and long terms respectively. But nobody is concerned. Instead, everyone is jumping on the media opportunity the EndSARS protests is creating. For the next two weeks, I can bet that the exchanges between the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and the CNN would be the main business of the government.



In the midst of this excruciating poverty, the country is witnessing deaths from Yellow Fever, which has killed scores of people in states like Delta, Kogi, Enugu and Benue so far. Is it not surprising that while the world is concerned with ‘perfecting’ a vaccine for COVID-19, a disease like Yellow Fever whose vaccine has been around for nearly a century would be killing us? 

Maybe we should plead with ‘village people to free Nigeria’!