Over 100m Nigerians Are Poor -Oby Ezekwesili …As Nation Earns $1trn From Oil

Former Minister of Education and Vice President, African Region for the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili says over 100 million Nigerians are living in abject poverty despite the country’s huge oil resource.
She gave the figure, while delivering a keynote speech at the sixth Port Harcourt Book Festival tagged “Literature and the Creative Economy” in Port Harcourt yesterday.
According to her, about 69 per cent of Nigerians were living under poverty from statistics made available by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), adding that even with an annual GDP growth of nine percent, not much had affected the populace.
Ezekwesili insisted that manufacturing had continued to dwindle at a paltry 15 per cent of the economy and argued that it was impossible for the country to make any headway economically in such conditions.
She said few countries had achieved high income status without industrialisation, and declared that the country’s huge and budding creative sector could provide the needed impetus to move the Nigerian economy out of the woods.
Ezekwesili explained that skills and talents were income generating assets that could foster human development and drive other sub sectors.
Explaining that the world was moving away from dependence on natural to human resource driven economies, the former Minister noted that “what is inside of your citizens is much more valuable than what resides in the ground”.
She observed that it was not too late for Nigeria to tap from its abundant human resources, saying the emergent creative industry needed to grow independently from political influence and government interference.
Dr. Ezekwesili also advocated for a “Cluster Approach” of developing the creative economy, where people of like minds can stay together and engage themselves in creating things for the society.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has earned more than one trillion dollars from oil since its discovery in 1958 according to former Vice President of World Bank, African Region, Dr. (Mrs) Oby Ezekwesili.
In a keynote address at the Sixth Port Harcourt Book Festival in Port Harcourt, Ezekwesili also advocated for a revival of the culture and creative economy sector of the country.
Ezekwesili however said that the discovery of oil had become a source of sorrow for millions of Nigerians as the huge earnings had not transformed the lives of the people and blamed the situation on corruption and bad governance.
While putting the poverty ratio in the country at 69 per cent, she said that Nigeria must look for ways of changing the structure of her economy.
Speaking on the theme of the festival which is “Literature and the Creative Economy”, Ezekwesili said the sooner Nigeria realised the importance of her creative industry, the better it would be for the country.
The former Minister of Education said that, the era when Nigeria and other African countries depended on minerals was gone, pointing out that most advanced economies in the world were now fueled by ideas and innovation.
She however said that the nation seemed to have woken to the realities of the creative industries, a situation that is being reflected in the Nollywood Film and music industry.
Ezekwesili also called for networking between the literary community and the rest of the creative industry, and emphasised that education must be the key point in the development of the creative industry.
Also speaking, the Festival Director, Mrs Koko Kalango said that, the first five years of the festival were used to build a solid foundation which had made the Port Harcourt Book Festival, the foremost in the African continent.
Kalango who is also the Director of the Port Harcourt Book Club, said that this year’s edition was significant as it was a prelude to the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014.

John Bibor

L-R: Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and Founder, Rainbow Book Club, Mrs Koko Kalango, during the sixth Port Harcourt Book Festival in Port Harcourt, yesterday.