Nigeria’s poverty challenge reared its head again this past week, and the picture is not a cheering one. First, we were told that the poverty train is still busy picking passengers from Nigeria. This is so because not enough has been done to cut the supply of the poor from the country. Secondly, we as Nigerians got a branding of poverty as an attribute that could be desirable in some situations. However, it is not clear which group of people should cultivate that virtue.
By 2027, the number of poor Nigerians will rise by 3.6 per cent – in five years – that is from its level in 2022. The World Bank revealed this in its Africa’s Pulse report, released during the Spring Meetings of the Bretton Woods institutions in Washington, DC last week.
In March 2022, the bank predicted that at least five million Nigerians would be pushed into the poverty camp by the end of that year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With that, it said the number of poor people in the country would hit 95.1 million. Therefore, if 3.6 per cent of that number falls below the poverty line by 2027, this will drive the total to 98.5 million.
Last week also provided an opportunity for the head of Nigeria’s legislature to lecture Nigerians on the nature of poverty. According to our own Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, poverty is “not a crime,” and can indeed be a desirable trait or attribute.
“Poverty could sometimes be a virtue, a virtue of God. Whatever you have, you should be able to share with your brothers and sisters, especially during this Easter period,” Akpabio added.
Senator Akpabio spoke against the widespread story of Pope Francis, who was laid to rest last week. Among other attributes of the late pope, he was said to have left behind just $100 in his account. That surprised the world, how a man who led such a large organisation could live a simple life. Our most distinguished senator had the singular honour of representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the burial of Pope Francis. It was against this background that Senator Akpabio went both spiritual and philosophical on the attributes of poverty.
Yet, Akpabio’s description of poverty as a virtue must be weighed against the Nigerian reality, as it raises some pertinent questions. First, what classes of people or Nigerians specifically, are expected to imbibe this virtue? Or are there special people who are enabled to be inclined to this disposition? Can it exist in our politicians? If poverty indeed can be a virtue, why is that virtue lacking among our politicians?
As much as one can recall, in Nigeria’s political history, only a few political actors in Nigeria have shown an inclination toward a simple or moderate lifestyle. The truth, however, is that that generation of politicians is gone. One of them was Mallam Aminu Kano. He died in April 1983, and reports say he left just three naira cash, at the time of his death.
Our political class, especially those elected to offices such as the national and state assemblies, is immune to the incidence of poverty. The current system has made this so through their bloated remunerations. So, even as the World Bank has projected that as many as 3.42 million Nigerians (from my calculation) will fall into poverty in the next two years, it is certain that none of the new members of the poverty party of Nigeria will come from the political class. The reason is simple.
Usually, the bank explains the route through which the class of poor people swells up from time to time. To appreciate this, recall that the bank’s benchmark of poverty in this case is the $2.15 poverty line. Anyone living below this line or its equivalent in naira per day is regarded as being poor in the absolute sense. Falling below this line happens in a couple of ways. One, some people fall into this category through the loss of jobs. Of course, people who are jobless are poor, unless they have property or assets through which they can earn income, but in most cases, this is not so among this class of people.
Secondly, people fall into poverty because of rising inflation. In this case, someone’s low income could remain the same in nominal terms, but as the general price level rises, the purchasing power of their income diminishes. Many Nigerians can relate with this phenomenon as it defines their current experiences. When ordinary Nigerians go to the market these days, the prices they meet have no correlation with what they paid for the same commodities the last time they went to the same market, perhaps just a week or two earlier.
In this current reality, many are increasingly falling into poverty because they can no longer afford the same basket of goods they could buy some months ago as prices rise. It is this class who will continue to populate the poverty class.
