A feckless political system and excessive reliance on an oil industry that generates few jobs have conspired to reverse Nigeria’s battle against poverty despite economic growth, analysts say.
Many see Nigeria as a classic victim of the “resource curse” where oil or mineral wealth leads to the neglect of other economic sectors, exposes the country to volatile price swings and fuels corruption and strife.
Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, but the number of Nigerians living on less than a US$1 a day rose to 61.2 percent in 2010 from 51.6 percent in 2004, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a report last week.
The figures marked a regression for Africa’s most populous nation — where the poverty rate had declined between 1996 and 2004 — and showed Nigeria has not shared in the progress made elsewhere on the continent.
“It remains a paradox ... that despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year,” said Yemi Kale, the head of the statistics bureau.
Nigeria’s economy grew at an average 7.6 percent between 2003 and 2010, according to the World Bank.
Analysts said that while the lucrative oil industry has fuelled growth since crude was discovered some 50 years ago, the sector’s dominance has been a curse for the poor, causing neglect in areas like agriculture.
“What we need is the opportunity for sectors involved with non-oil exports to provide jobs,” said Olufemi Deru, former head of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, a key private sector grouping.
He said Nigeria has failed to come up with an effective agriculture policy.
“We should not be importing so much rice. This is a staple food for both the rich and the poor,” he said and suggested Nigeria restrict imports on basic foodstuffs to force a rise in agricultural production.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said in a 2010 report that, across Africa, extreme poverty declined from 1990 to 2008, but that progress was halted by the onset of the global economic crisis.
Some dispute those figures, and the UNDP has said its 2005 to 2008 assessments were based on projections, not hard data.
The African country that has clearly made the most progress is Rwanda — small both geographically and by population — where a powerful executive branch led by Rwandan President Paul Kagame is largely able to act unilaterally.
Poverty rates in the Great Lakes state, destroyed by the 1994 genocide, dropped from 57 percent in 2005 to 45 percent in 2010, roughly the period when Nigeria saw worsening poverty, according to government statistics.
“The problem is the structural differences in the Nigerian situation,” said Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, an activist and World Bank consultant on poverty reduction.
Governments in Nigeria’s 36 states have significant authority — which they often use for personal enrichment, not the public good — and can stymie initiatives that clash with regional political interests, Ransome-Kuti said.
Nigeria rarely sees policies through and tends to do a “somersault” when political obstacles crop up, according to Deru.
National leaders in a country widely regarded as one of the world’s most corrupt rarely generate sound policy, Ransome-Kuti said.
“They are not just lazy gluttons. They are incompetent. They don’t have the capacity to deliver,” she said of politicians in the capital, echoing recent comments by Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.
Nigerian lawmakers are estimated to make more than US$1 million a year largely thanks to their various allowances.
The statistics bureau’s report showed that poverty rates were highest in the country’s north, notably in the northwest where 70 percent of the population lives on less than US$1 per day.
Nigeria’s 160 million people are roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.
Shehu Sani, an activist based in the northern city of Kaduna, said national systemic problems are compounded by regional obstacles.
“In the north we have a problem of illiteracy, ignorance and resistance against modern ideas that could lift people out of poverty,” the head of the Civil Rights Congress said.
Nigeria has been repeatedly advised to diversify its economy and reform its dysfunctional government but little is ever done, Ransome-Kuti said, adding: “The government has those reports on their shelves somewhere.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS