INTRODUCTION
In
Nigeria, widespread and severe poverty is a reality. It is a reality that
depicts a lack offood, clothes, education and other basic amenities. Severely
poor people lack the mostbasic necessities of life to a degree that it can be
wondered how they manage to survive.There are several effects and deficiencies
associated with poverty in Nigeria. One of themain effects of poverty is poor
health, as is reflected in Nigeria’s high infant mortalityand low life
expectancy. Poor people in Nigeria face several health issues as they lackbasic
health amenities and competent medical practitioners. Most children do not
havethe opportunity of being immunized and this leads to certain physical
defects in some ofthe children. Their health has become low priority and as
they have little or no choices,they live with whatever they are provided with,
whether healthy or not.This article focuses on some of the key factors that
contribute to poverty in Nigeria: unemployment, especially among young
graduates; corruption, especially amongpolitical office holders;
non-diversification of the economy; income inequality; laziness, especially
among those who come from wealthy households; and a pooreducation system. Some
of these could also be considered to be causes of poverty. Whilethe distinction
between causes and effects of poverty is fuzzy, our discussion below willshow
that these factors seem more likely to be causes than effects of poverty in
Nigeria.Some of the more obvious effects or dimensions of poverty in Nigeria
are provided in theSection on empirical background.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Defining Poverty
Any
discussion about poverty, and poverty eradication, needs to begin with
agreement on the definitions, or discourse, being used. This is very crucial to
establishing criteria of success or failure of any poverty-eradication strategy. Yet, definitions of poverty vary widely and are
often used interchangeably.
Most
commonly, poverty is defined as “state of being in which we are unable to meet
our needs” (Watt, 2000:15). However, the concept of ‘needs’ itself is defined
very differently across different cultures and generations, as technology and
changing values alter perceptions of the pre-requisites of an acceptable
standard of living. This indicates that the concept of ‘needs’ includes the
notion of what is conventionally regarded as necessary to lead one’s life as an
integrated member of a particular society. Thus, in his The Wealth of the Nations, the eighteenth century Scottish
economist, Adam Smith, recognized the importance of this point when he defined
the ability to appear in public “without shame” as a major criterion of
individual human welfare (Smith, 1986).
Baratz
and Grisgby (1972) defined poverty as a “condition involving some deprivations
and adverse occurrences that are closely (but not necessarily exclusively)
associated with inadequate economic resources”. Some see poverty as “inadequacy
of income to support a minimum standard of living” (Edozien: 1975:35). Closely
connected to this is the use of “Basic Needs” indicators such as food,
clothing, shelter, etc. to define the concept.
NATURE OF NIGERIA POVERTY
The issue of Poverty in Nigeria is
so complex and myriad that one may consider it as equal to the whole problem of
Nigeria. The worst part of the case is that, the rich grows richer and the poor
grows poorer that is “poverty for majority and wealth for minority”(World Bank 2001)
Poverty in Nigeria remains significant despite high
economic growth it first started sometime during the British Empire. Nigeria has one of the world's highest economic growth rates
(averaging 7.4% over the last decade), a well-developed economy, and plenty of
natural resources such as oil. However, it retains a high level of poverty,
with 63% living on below $1 daily, implying a decline in equity.(World Bank 2008)
Poverty in Nigeria can be also caused by the political
instability of the country. However, these programs have largely failed to
overcome the three reasons for this persistent poverty: income inequality, ethnic conflict, and political instability.
DIMENSION OF NIGERIA POVERTY
Nigeria
is a West African country with about 152 million people (as of 2008). It is by
farthe most populous country in the whole of Africa. Although Nigeria’s GDP per
capita hasbeen increasing through the course of time in nominal US dollar terms
(see Figure 1),many Nigerians are still living in poverty. Obviously, the
average income per capita doesnot give the real picture due to Nigeria’s high income
inequality, which will be discussedin more details in the next section.
According to the World Resources Institute’senvironmental resource portal Earth Trends, about 71 percent of
Nigerians live on less than $1 a day and about 92 percent live on less than $2
a day.(World Bank 2001)
Poverty
in Nigeria was first measured in 1980 by the Federal Office of Statistics
(FOS), when 27.2 per cent of the population, or 18 million people, were
classified as poor. By 1985, the Federal Office of Statistics estimated that
about 46 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty level but it dropped to 43
per cent by 1992. This rate surged to 66 per cent in a 1996 survey and the
total number of poor nearly quadrupled, to 67 million (UNDP 1986). Estimates
put the poverty rate today at close to 70 per cent, or 90 million people.
Perhaps 40 per cent of these people are the '‘core' poor”, so impoverished that
they cannot meet their basic food needs, and indeed, the stunting rate for
young Nigerian children, a measure of chronic nutritional deprivation and food
insecurity, stands at 42 per cent (world bank 2008),
The
phenomenon of poverty appears to be more concentrated in the rural than in the
urban areas of the country. The number of rural poor, according to the 1999
World Bank Report, is roughly twice that of the urban poor. Of the extremely
poor, 85 per cent live in the rural areas and more than two-thirds lived on
farms. The distribution of poverty is also inequitable on a geographic basis.
Regionally the North-West geopolitical zone has the largest proportion of its
population living in poverty, and the three northern geo-political zones have
65 per cent of the nation’s population but account for only 35 per cent of GDP.
The 1997 National Consumer Survey indicated that the average family expenditure
per month for the contry was N4,058.00. Out the country’s six geo-political
zones, the North West zone had the least figure N2.941. The Eastern zone had
the highest figure of N5,194.00, almost double the figure for the North-West zone.
Also, the North West zone recorded the lowest figure of household income
(N3,769), while the highest figure of N7,213 came from the South Eastern zone.
The level of poverty in the zone is striking indeed. About 54.2 per cent of the
inhabitants of the zone live below the poverty line. The North-West came second
only to North-east which recorded 55.8 per cent on the poverty scale (World
Bank, 2001). No part of the country is exempt from poverty, however, and severe
poverty is also experienced in the Southern regions. Lack of formal education,
large household size, living in a rural area and pursuing an agricultural
livelihood are strongly associated with poverty.The headcount measure of
poverty in Nigeria declined from 43 to 34% between 1985 and 1992, primarily due
to a 34% increase in mean per capita household expenditures. The benefits of
growth were not shared equally throughout the country. The bottom 18% of the
income distribution had a lower standard of living in 1992 compared with 1985
by any measure. However, all other income groups had a higher standard of
living in 1992. Household expenditure growth was fastest in the southern and
middle zones of the country, but it was much slower in the northern zone.
Poverty in Nigeria, in addition to its overwhelmingly rural and regional
characteristics, is also strongly influenced by education, age and the nature
of employment.
Nigeria’s
prevalence of undernourished iswith about 10 percent of the population over the
last decade inconsistent with 70 percentof the people living below the poverty
line, especially as the prevalence ofundernourished in Sub-Saharan Africa is
given to be at around 30 percent over the lastdecade.Anyway, it is clear that
given the rich natural resources, the level of poverty in Nigeria isremarkably
high. While data on Nigeria’s poverty over time remains scattered, there issome
evidence that Nigeria’s poverty has actually increased over time.5 Nigeria
alsoranks third in the world for the most people living with HIV/AIDS and has
the thirdhighest death rate as a result of HIV/AIDS
CAUSES OF POVERTY IN NIGERIA
According
to Garcia, Kohl, Ruengsorn andZislin (2006), Nigeria’s main challenges include,
reducing poverty, diversifying its economy from the oil and gas sector towards
more labor intensive sectors, and improving health and education. The oil has
increased economic volatility and inflation while those living in poverty being
most vulnerable to volatility and inflation. To add to it, instability of
government revenues and a crowding out of agriculture (which provides the
source of income to the poor) have made the situation worsen. The oil industry
does not employ a sizeable number of unskilled workers, thereby contributes
little to reducing poverty.
Nnadi
(2008) discusses the various impacts of globalization on the Nigerian economy.
These impacts have resulted to social and economic problems in the country such
as inequality, the emergence of a social underclass and low development. He
also states that globalization has affected Nigeria’s economic growth through a
decline of foreign direct investment and that for unemployment, poverty and inequality to be alleviated Nigeria’s economic policies need to be changed.
The causes of poverty in nigeriaInclude:
Unemployment
Unemployment
is a major factor contributing to poverty in Nigeria. There is a
strongcorrelation between unemployment and poverty. When people are unemployed,
theirsource of livelihood depletes over time. The cost of living becomes high
and the standardof living goes down. There are many people in Nigeria who lack
the opportunity of beingemployed. The formal unemployment rate in Nigeria as
estimated by the World Bank in2007 was 4.9 percent and Nigeria ranked 61st
across the worlds countries. As reported by Teshome (2008), the then newly
released African Development
Indicatorsreport of the World Bank showed that “education, once seen as
the surest, undisputedgateway to employment, no longer looks so certain.” This
is very true in the case ofNigeria. The fact that you are an educated Nigerian
is no guarantee that you will beemployed. Furthermore, according to the World
Bank report, unemployment in Africa ishigher among those who have attained a
higher education of some kind, and also those inwealthy households because they
depend solely on the wealth of their families and do notconsider employment a
priority.Many graduates in Nigeria wander the streets without anything
reasonable to do for aliving.
Corruption
Transparency
International defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power forprivate
gain.”6 This has become a common act in Nigeria and it has destabilized
thepolitical system drastically. Government funds are being misappropriated on
a daily basisby the leaders, who only put the interest of their family and
friends at heart whileignoring the masses. The corruption has eaten so deeply
into the government andeconomy that everyone seems to be blinded by it.
Corruption has almost become anaccepted way of life in Nigeria.
In
Nigeria, the government’s income is generated mostly from natural resource
revenues.
This
income, instead of being used for developmental purposes, is then circulated
amongthe political office holders and their families, leaving the rest of the
people to wallow inpoverty. Political leaders practically ignore the affairs
and wellbeing of their people who elected them into office. They mismanage and
embezzle funds. There are several issuesinvolved with bad governance in
Nigeria, use of wrong policies, adaptation to wrongpolicies and implementation
of those wrong policies. In any case, it is clear that Nigeria’scorruption has
increased poverty and inequality as well as contributed to high crime rates.
Non-Diversification
of the Economy – Oil Over-Dependency
While
Nigeria’s poverty has been identified to be caused by many factors, Nigeria’s no
diversification of the economy can be seen as a major factor. Before 1970, the
Nigerianeconomy was driven by the agricultural sector. The oil sector which
only constituted one percent of the country’s export revenue in 1958 rose to 97
percent by 1984 and has sincethen not gone below 90 percent. In 2008, the oil
and gas sector constituted about 97.5percent of their export revenues, 81
percent of government revenues and about 17 percentof GDP.(World
bank 2008),
In
Nigeria, those in power have practically ignored other sources of income, and
today,Nigeria depends heavily on exporting oil. This dependency on natural
resources is oftenreferred to as “Dutch disease”, whereby natural resources
make a country lesscompetitive. Excluding the few working in the oil sector,
the majority of the people havebeen impoverished as their products have become
irrelevant. The agricultural sector,which was their major means of income
before the discovery of oil, is considered almostuseless.
Beyond
the Dutch disease, Nigeria’s abundance of a natural resource has led to what
isknown as a resource course, which is reflected in the “Niger Delta Crisis
(reflecting theregion of the country where most of the oil is coming from). The
people in this region arefighting for resource control as they claim the
government is not fulfilling their promiseof giving them the large part of the
oil revenues. The wealth from natural resources inNigeria is supposed to be
working with the derivation policy, but this policy is notfunctional in any
way, as the oil-producing states are still impoverished and this policy
issupposed to work in a way such that these states with these natural resources
should beable to get a large part of the countries revenue as they contribute a
lot to the nationalwealth.According to Collier (2007), resource wealth
sometimes contributes to a conflict trap andthe surplus from natural resource
exports reduces growth. He goes on to discuss the caseof Nigeria in the 1970s,
when other exports of the country like agriculture became nonprofit abledue to
increase oil revenues. He explains how the Dutch disease can damagethe growth
process by closing out on the exports in other promising sectors of theeconomy.
The first half of the 1980s gave rise to a huge oil boom in Nigeria and also
ledto excessive government borrowing and investment on wasteful projects that
made thecorruption in the country more apparent. As the world price of oil
crashed in 1986,
Nigeria’s
oil revenues reduced drastically and Nigeria’s external debt
increaseddrastically. The introduction of the structural adjustment program
(SAP) was one of thegovernment reforms advocated by the international financial
institutions to reduceNigeria’s oil dependency. Despite increased national
output in non-oil sectors, povertyand social indicators worsened as most of the
revenues generated were used for servicingNigeria’s external debt. Nigerians
have blamed the soaring poverty level despite theincrease in output to the introduction
of the reforms and policies introduced during thelate 1980s. Nigerians hence
came to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy by worldfinancial
institutions to take their country down.
Inequality
Inequality
implies a concentration of a distribution, whether one is considering
income,consumption or some other welfare indicators or attributes (Oyekale,
Oyekale andAdeoti, 2007). There was an increase in income disparity after the
economic growthwhich Nigeria experienced between1965-1975, and this income
inequality has increasedthe dimension of poverty in the country (Oluwatayo,
2008, p. 1). The income inequalitybetween the people in rural and urban areas
in Nigeria is remarkably high, as those wholive in the rural areas base all
their income on agriculture which is today not a thrivingsector in Nigeria as
oil has taken over the economy. They do not invest their money toacquire skills
as people in the urban areas would and this makes them more vulnerable
topoverty and leads to some social and economic problems such as violence,
corruption andso on (Oluwatayo, 2008, p. 2).
A
more equal distribution of Nigeria’sincome would go a long way in reducing the
rate of poverty, but because it is typicallythe rich people who hold political
offices or are related to those holding political office,income remains
concentrated among the rich.
Laziness
Laziness
is a common disease which is virtually suffered by many Nigerians
today,especially those from wealthy households. Everyone wants to be
comfortable but they arenot ready to work towards it. This often leads to greed
where people will do whatever they can to keep the family wealth for
themselves. In most families, everyone depends onthe bread winner, who works so
much to keep the family going and when he dies thefamily is likely to become
poor because of mismanagement of funds. In most Nigerianfamilies, the death of
the bread winner means the death of the whole family fortunes;because everyone
was depending on him/her to provide everything.
Poor
Education System
Education
can play a major role in reducing poverty. According to the World
Bank,education is central to development. It promotes economic growth, national
productivityand innovation, and values of democracy and social cohesion. In
Nigeria, the populationwith no education account for most of the poor. The
education system in Nigeria can beregarded as a failure compared to other
countries in the world. The United NationsUniversal Declaration of Human
Rights8 states that “everyone has the right to aneducation.” This right to
education has been denied to many Nigerians, of which many ofthem can be
considered invisible to the society now. This deprivation of educationapplies
more to females than males, because they are considered the inferior sex.
Henceeducating them is seen as unnecessary as they are expected to marry as
early as possible.
The under-utilization of labour
resources during the farming season resulting from: The inability of many poor farmers
to farm on a scale which matches their labour resources, andrudimentary nature
of the system of farm-labour employment; and Also the dire shortage of working
capital, which severely limits the scale and productiveness of farming
especially where cultivation of manure farmland is the preferred agronomic
system.
Political
Instability:
The failure to successfully actualize political transition programmes, result
in social and economic unrest domestically and internationally. Productive
ventures are unable to flourish with a restricted and market for sales,
investments are withdrawn, jobs are insecure, and the general citizenry faces
economic insecurity.
WAYS TO CURB POVERTY IN NIGERIA
According
to Garcia, Kohl, Ruengsorn and Zislin (2006), Nigeria’s mainchallenges include,
reducing poverty, diversifying its economy from the oil andgas sector towards
more labor intensive sectors, and improving health andeducation. The oil has
increased economic volatility and inflation while thoseliving in poverty being
most vulnerable to volatility and inflation. To add to it,instability of
government revenues and a crowding out of agriculture (which provides the
source of income to the poor) have made the situation worsen. Theoil industry
does not employ a sizeable number of unskilled workers, thereby contributes
little to reducing poverty.
Development of rural areas
Nigeria’s
approach has been to pursue industrial development in the cities with the hope
that the increased wealth and raw materials demand will trickle to the rural
areas.Indonesia has pursued to good effect a different approach by developing
the rural areas- providing basic amenities e.g. electricity, water and
promoting the establishment of agro-based industries in rural areas.As a result
that nation has been able to stem rural-urban migration, curtail crime and
spread wealth more equitably amongst its people.Most of the Nigerian poor are
in rural areas and neglecting them is what is responsible forNigeria’s poor
rating in several national well-being indices e.g. maternal and infant
mortality, access to information and communication technology, access to pipe
borne water etc.If national policies are not directed to helping the poor
majority in rural areas, how then can the national averages in well-being
indicators improve?Science schools should be established in rural areas so that
rural kids can develop local technologies to help improve the output from local
occupations.Technology should be adopted in conjunction with foreign experts,
who will reside in the rural areas to ensure technology transfer.
Remove hunger
from poverty and poverty is reduced (Yoruba Proverb)
With
the use of technology in local occupations especially in agriculture, output
will increase, spoilage will reduce and prices of foodstuffs in the cities will
drop and become more affordable to the urban poor. Focus should also be on
building good linkage roads between rural areas and the cities so as to ensure
access to local and international markets for rural dwellers. This will improve
their incomes and socioeconomic status. Focusing development in rural areas
will reduce rural-urban migration, reduce overpopulation in the cities, reduce
poverty in the villages and cities, reduce crime because more people will
return to the villages and since these communities are more closely knit and
traditional, incentives to commit crime will be non-existent.
Foreign Trade
Europe
especially England became very wealthy because of their imperialistic nature
from the 17th to the mid 20thcentury. The USA although
proclaiming an appearance of peace is in fact very war like and imperialistic
and it has not hesitated to find markets for its businesses through diplomatic,
coercive and often violent means. By aggressively and subtly selling its
culture through the pop media, it has ensured that whole nations cannot do
without American styled clothes, American branded cosmetics and food and
American music. As a result their nation has prospered exceedingly. True that
Dangote, Nollywood and the banks have done well for Nigeria in foreign markets
but Nigeria needs to develop more markets for other sectors especially in
Africa i.e. pharmaceuticals, commodities e.g. cement, food etc.
Family Planning
Children
are a gift from God but are a boon only for a country whose national wealth is
increasing.For a nation whose national wealth is stagnant or declining, these
children and their mothers face immense suffering. As of the 18th
century, Adam Smith observed that ‘luxury seems to weaken and frequently to
destroy altogether the powers of generation’ and this may perhaps explain why
the elite just like rich nations have fewer children.While a poor Nigerian
woman may have a s many as seven children or more, many rich women have one or
two kids. This may suggest higher rates of barrenness in the upper class but in
truth this is not so.Low birth rates amongst elite women is due to better
education that has enabled them to assert their independence and reproductive
rights better than poor women who often are dependent on their husbands and
have no say. Rich women do not have less sex than poor women; they only know
better how not to get pregnant.Maternal mortality is low amongst rich women
because better family planning reduces complications and ensures they are in
better health when they have a subsequent pregnancy. It is therefore important
that the Nigerian government empowers the Nigerian female through education. It
is also important to realize that high infant mortality among the poor due to
inadequate health facilities is responsible also for their high birth rates.
Therefore the government must take it as a priority to build, equip and
properly staff maternal and child care centers in all local government areas in
the country to address this.(Smith, 1986),
Increase the minimum wage
Since
the population is made up more of the laboring poor, would making them happy by
improving their wages not bode well for the entire nation?While employers may
dislike this given their fears that increased wages may make the people lazy
and reduce profit margins, these fears are unjustified.In fact when workersare
better paid and if the payment pattern is such that the rewards increase in
proportion to expended labor, employers will discover that a well-motivated
staff work even harder and are more productive.As to the reduction in profit
margins, this also is unjustified fear. When wages are increased, the amounts
available to the society for discretionary spending increases and as a result
demand for goods and services increase.Production capacities become fully
utilized and total overall costs drop leading to marginal increase in profit
margins.
Tangible
Breakthrough: poverty can be self-induced or circumstantial. In the first
categorization, the victim of poverty has done very little or nothing in his
life to confront social and economic challenges with a view to securing a
tangible breakthrough in life. The person starts to find faults to substantiate
or justify why-he/she are in the sorry-state. Such a person is very look warm
within his or friends-hood to take actions or programs that will generate
long-termed returns. They doubt strategic game-plans. They are also too
spiritual in their rationalization.
CONCLUSION
Poverty
is multi-dimensional and even though it is difficult to separate the various
dimensions of poverty from the various causes of poverty, in the case of
Nigeria, we haveshown that unemployment, corruption, the non-diversification of
Nigeria’s economy,inequality, laziness, and a poor education system are some of
the key determinants ofpoverty. These determinants are many times related to
each other and also enforce eachother. For example, unemployment, poor
education and poverty can be seen as viciouscycle. Today, people who are not
educated lack the opportunity of being hired for goodjobs, and the poor masses
today still cannot afford to go to school which makes them thepoor unemployed
masses tomorrow. Hence, all these factors are correlated and must allbe tackled
together if any progress wants to be made.
When it is said that Nigeria has no
business being poor, what is actually being implied is that the Nigerian people
ought not to be destitute and want nothing of the good things of life; and that
even those who may be poor in monetary terms should not lack access to good
health facilities, basic amenities and livable lodges. Yes Nigeria may be poor
but with the reorientation of our national culture and the enthronement of good
governance, even if poor Nigerians remain, these must never be destitute or
enslaved in their own land.
REFERENCES
Collier, Paul (2007) The
Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing andWhat Can Be Done About
It (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press).
Baratz, N.S.
and W.G. Grisby (1972), “Thoughts on Poverty and its Implementation: in Journal
of Social Policy, Vol.6, April.
Edozien, E.O.
(1975), “Poverty: Some Issues in Concept and Theory”, in Rural Poverty in
Nigeria (Op.cit.).
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Kohl; Ann Ruengsorn; and Julia Zislin (2006) Nigeria:Economic Performance
Assessment (Washington, DC: United States Agency forInternational
Development (USAID), February);
Nnadi, Stanley E. (2008)
“The Impact of Globalization on the Nigerian Economy”,Minneapolis, Minnesota:
Walden University, Dissertation;
Oluwatayo, I. B. (2008)
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Wealth of Nations, Harmondsworth: Pengium.
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“Multi-sectoral Approach to Cope with African YouthUnemployment”, waltaINFO of
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(2000), Social Investment and Economic Growth: Strategy to Eradicate Poverty,
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TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
THE
NATURE OF NIGERIA POVERTY
THE
DIMENSION OF NIGERIA POVERTY
CAUSES
OF NIGERIA POVERTY
POSSIBLE
SOLUTION TO NIGERIA POVERTY
CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY
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