Instead of jointly proffering workable solutions to the rising poverty rate in Nigeria, the federal government and some state governors recently embarked on a needless blame game. While the Federal Government blamed the high poverty level in Nigeria on state governors, the governors threw the blame back to the federal government and accused it of not fulfilling its obligations to Nigerians.
On the side of the Federal Government was the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr. Clement Agba. According to him, the governors pay more attention to elephant projects instead of improving the life of the seventy two per cent of the nation’s poor who reside mainly in the rural areas. President Muhammadu Buhari even added his voice to the blame game and traced the rising poverty to the mismanagement of local government funds and thirteen per cent derivation from oil producing states.
The governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum accused the federal government of being responsible for the poverty rate. In a statement, the governors said Agba’s accusation was “diversionary, unnecessary and a brazen descent into selective amnesia”. The governors reminded the federal government that the primary duty of any government is to ensure the security of life and property.
All these have made life for the rural people harsh and brutish, leading, invariably to poverty in 2018, when the World Poverty Clock adjudged Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world, the country had 86.9 million people living in extreme poverty. Today, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), there are about 133 million Nigerians living below poverty level. This has surpassed the World Bank’s prediction that 15 to 20 million more Nigerians might join the poverty rank in 2022. What this means is that it will be difficult for the country to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end extreme poverty by 2030. This is frightening and a ticking time bomb.
Already, Nigeria is among the top ten hunger-ravaged countries in the world. The United Nations, recently, estimated that about 4.1 million people in the North-East, for instance,
are at the severe risk of food insecurity and starvation. The situation is worsened by high rate of unemployment, which has left a great number of youths despondent and angry. Unfortunately, many companies which could have employed these youths have shut down.
The federal government should take the greater part of the blame for this situation because it collects more money than the states. Though it had embarked on a number of poverty alleviation programmes under its National Social Investment Programme, the question remains, how have these programmes impacted on the real poor people?
These are mere palliative measures which have not fundamentally reduced any poverty rate. President Buhari had promised to pull 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030. Rather than improve, the poverty rate has worsened. This shows that whatever measure the government has adopted is not working.
The way the states have emasculated the local governments also contributes to the high poverty rate. The local governments are almost non-existent. They engage in unnecessary profligacy and swim in corruption and are not bothered about what happens to their citizens.
There is need to have local government autonomy. It is the government that is closest to the people. They need to have their own separate accounts. This will empower them to face the problems within the local communities squarely. This will go a long way in tackling poverty in the country.
We must be careful not to unwittingly invite the poverty-induced Arab Spring type of revolution, which started in Tunisia in December 2010, into the country. Nigerians no longer have time for any needless exercise in buck passing. They are more interested in having their problems solved. Governments at all levels must make efforts to take people out of poverty by doing what they were elected to do. The FG, in particular, should effectively manage monetary policies in such a way as to stabilise the prices of essential goods and services and create employment. The two tiers of government should also invest in education, health care and technology.
Written by Professor Anthony Eze
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