Nigeria is not a poor country yet millions are living in hunger, abject poverty and avoidable misery. What an irony! Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation is naturally endowed with 44 mineral resources, found in 500 geographical locations in commercial quantity in the 36 States of the country and the Federal Capital Territory.  According to Nigeria’s former Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Olamiekan Adegbite, the mineral resources include: baryte, kaolin, gymsium, feldspar, limestone, coal, bitumen, lignite, uranium, gold, cassiterite, columbite, iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, granite, laterite, sapphire, tourmaline, emerald, topaz, amethyst, gamer, etc. Nigeria has a vast uncultivated arable land even as its geographical area is approximately 923, 769 sq km (356,669 sq ml). “This clearly demonstrates the wide mineral spectrum we are endowed with, which offers limitless opportunities along the value-chain, for job creation, revenue growth. Nigeria  provides one of the highest rates of return because its minerals are closer to the suffer”, Adegbite said.
Therefore, poverty in Nigeria is not the consequences of lack of resources and manpower but inequality, misappropriation, outright embezzlement, barefaced corruption that is systemic and normative in leaders and  public institutions. Although, Nigeria is ranked as the economic giant of Africa, the most populous country in Africa and the sixth in the world with a population conservatively put at 200 million,  the country has the second highest population of impoverished people in the world. According to the World Poverty Clock 2023, Nigeria has the awful distinction of being the world capital of poverty with about 84 million people living in extreme poverty today. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data also revealed that a total of 133 million people in Nigeria are classed as multi-dimensionally poor. Unemployment is a major challenge in the country. About 33 percent of the labour force are unable to find a job at the prevailing wage rate. About 63 percent of the population were poor because of lack of access to health, education, employment, and security.
Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) speculated that unemployment rate will increase to 37 percent in 2023. The implications, therefore, is increase in unemployment will translate to increase in the poverty rate. The World Bank, a Washington-based and a multi-lateral development institution,  in its macro-poverty outlook for Nigeria for April 2023 projected that 13 million Nigerians will fall below the National Poverty line by 2025. It further stated that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products without adequate  palliatives will result to 101 million people being poor in Nigeria. Statistics also show that “in 2023, nearly 12 percent of the world population of extreme poverty lived in Nigeria considering poverty threshold at 1.90 US dollars a day”. Taking a cursory look at the Nigerian Development Update (NDU), the World Bank said “four million Nigerians were pushed into poverty  between January and June 2023 and 7.1 million more will join if the removal of subsidy is not adequately managed.”These startling revelations paint a grim and bleak future for the socio-economic life of the people.
The alarming poverty in the country is a conspiracy of several factors, including corruption. In January, 2023 the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, in its annual corruption prospect index which ranks the perceived level of public sector corruption across 180 countries in the world says Nigeria ranked 150 among 180 in the index. Conversely, Nigeria is the 30th most corrupt nation in the ranking. It is also the capital of unemployment in the world. Truth be told: a government that is corruption-ridden lacks the capacity to build a vibrant economy that will provide employment for the teeming unemployed population. So crime and criminality become inevitable. No wonder the incessant cases of violent crimes and delinquency among young people. Corruption seems to be the second nature of Nigeria as a nation which is why Late Gani Fawehenmi, ‘Senior Advocate for the Masses” worried by the outrageous corruption level of the repressive regime of a Nigeria’s late Head of State, once said, “If there is a place called hell, the hottest part of it should be reserved for Abacha”. Fawehenmi was of the view that corruption is worse than prostitution.
According to him, while prostitution destroys the person who indulges in it, corruption destroys a whole nation. How I desire that the legal luminary is alive to see the pains, trauma and poverty Nigerians are going through as a result of corruption. At the root of Nigerians’ poverty is the corruption cankerworm. How  the nation got to this sordid economic and social precipice is the accumulation of years of corrupt practices with impunity by successive administrations.  But the hardship Nigerians are experiencing gathered momentum between 2015 and 2023 and reached the climax few days after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who assumed power as president of Nigeria, removed the controversial petroleum subsidy. Since then, there is astronomical increase in transport fares, and prices of commodities. Living standard of most Nigerians is abysmally low, essential commodities are out of reach of the poor masses who barely eat once a day. The Dollar to Naira exchange rate ratio at one dollar to N1,000, is the most economy-unfriendly in the annals of the history of Nigeria. The prohibitive prices of petroleum products with the attendant multi-dimensional challenges following the removal of the subsidy, has posed a nightmare better to be imagined than experienced.
Inflation, especially for food items has been on the increase negatively affecting the purchasing power of  low income Nigerians. Contributing to the poverty scourge is the low private investment due to unfriendly business environment and lack of power supply, as well as low social development outcomes resulting in low productivity. It is pertinent to say that developed economies of the world are private sector-driven. So the inadequate involvement of the private sector in Nigeria’s economy, is a leading cause of unemployment which inevitably translates to poverty. Someone has said in Nigeria,  “Nothing is permanent here, except suffering. No job security, no safety clothing nor gadgets. Accidents are common. Every worker here would leave if they had a choice.”No doubt, the poverty and economic inequality in Nigeria has reached extreme levels, despite being the largest economy in Africa. The country has an expanding economy with abundant human capital and the economic potential to lift millions out of poverty. But poor leadership that has characterised the existence of Nigeria has further worsened the poverty level of the people. If Nigerians could get the monstrous leadership puzzle right, Nigeria will be great in a few years. Most leadership-induced challenges would be fixed. And I am sure Nigerians will not clamour for greener pastures outside the shores of the country.
Nigeria is not a poor country yet millions are living in hunger and abject poverty. The government can close the yawning inequality gap and increasing poverty level. It should boost agriculture by giving loans at a single digit interest rate to real farmers and investors. Nigeria should open her closed borders and work with the international community to get food and aid to hungry people because of her production capacity  that is grossly inadequate to meet the needs of her growing population.  It must free millions of Nigerians from poverty by building a new political and economic system that works for everyone, not just a privileged few. Looking at the high cost of Nigeria’s democracy, there is urgent need to restructure the nation’s democracy to reduce the financial burden on the country and the inordinate quest for power.

By: Igbiki Benibo