Rich Nation, Poor People

One day, the poor will have nothing left to eat but the rich.

It has been days since i  posted on my blog. But it would be wrong of me if i don't give kudos to the Navy Divers that went into a collapsed cave to rescue 12 football players and their coach some days back. These Navy Divers are the real Heroes. It takes selflessness and passion to venture into such danger without assurance of what will happen. Oh My, that cave could have collapsed again when these boys were being rescued, a crocodile might have been in the water that they swarm through; regardless of these, the brave divers went in and rescued the boys. This shows leadership, resilience and true character.

I sat down for days thinking about what my next topic should be, i observed my environment looking for what can interest my readers in regards to recent happenings then i came across this interesting news that my beautiful country overtook India has the Nation with the highest number of extremely poor people. At least we are first in something.

The government has debunked this report as false but i stay and live in Nigeria and i can assure you that people are suffering. Before now, India use to hold the position with a population of 1.324 Billion people as against Nigeria's 200 million. According to the report, the numbers of Nigerians in extreme poverty increase by six people every minute. 

According to the reports projection, Nigeria has already overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extremely poor people in early 2018. and the Democratic Republic of Congo could soon overtake the number 2 spot. By the end of 2018 in Africa as a whole, there will be probably 3.2 Million living in extreme poverty. The poverty situation in India continues to fall even with their large population but in Nigeria, the poverty situation continues to grow. At least theirs growth.

A county dealing with terrorism, cultural and religious extremism, inter-tribal wars and corruption now has poverty to deal with? there is a huge problem, a problem that requires fixing. People will do what they have to do to survive; poverty will lead into more recruits for Boko Haram, more recruits for Yahoo Boys (Cyber Fraudsters), poverty will lead into more criminals. Criminality will damage the country and its economy, criminality would put peoples lives at risk. 

There are fewer and fewer jobs in Nigeria, few organizations are willing to make loans available for aspiring entrepreneurs, the corrupt leaders are putting public funds into their pockets, money is restricted to a few citizens, politicians are seeking elections into public offices just to enrich their selves. Now tell me why their won't be extreme poverty when public funds is not dully circulated.

Despite being the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria doesn't fit well among the richest African countries. This attributed to long years of corruption and bad government which makes it difficult for Nigerians to enjoy favourable standards of living. If Africa's richest countries were rated in terms of GDP without considering their per capital levels, Nigeria will definitely emerge as the richest country because of our massive GDP. Nigeria's economy is largely dependent on Oil production and therefore the government has given little concentration to other key sectors

In 2011, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, wrote a similar post and suggested that "Unless we take measures to raise family incomes, create sustainable and better paying job opportunities, build critical infrastructure and optimally develop agriculture, Nigeria will remain a rich nation with very poor people. Dear Nasir, Nigeria is where you said it would be. The government has refused to aid your warnings and now we are the Nation with the largest number of extreme poor people.

For some reasons, i believe that there is hope, I love my Country. Call it patriotism but this is where i was born. We all have a role to play in helping this nation. Yes we need help from the outside world but we can only heal our nation ourselves.