There is no other way to look at the Poverty Report and not confirm that Nigeria is the undisputed Poverty capital of the world. Whoever is advising this Administration must recalibrate their strategy and focus on Poverty Reduction. There are too many Nigerians complaining of their inability to care for their spouses and children. Men leaving homes in the morning without coming back with sustenance are disrespected in their houses.
This is how communities break down without fathers at home just like political prostitutes with or without a party looking for Any Party In Power. Many are mercenaries without followers or members to vote for them. Buying them instead of using the money to alleviate poverty at the grassroots is unwise and may be counter productive. As stated a long time ago, too many heavyweight without followers will sink the boat.
The Main Pillars of Poverty Reduction strategies are comprehensive plans, including job creation designed to lower poverty rates. Fostering employment, improving housing stability and connecting residents with health and social services. Awolowo Poverty Reduction Strategy: Industrial Estates, Cooperative agriculture (cocoa), rubber, Palm Oil were able to pay for Free Education and Free Healthcare.
Voters’ mentality is changing. The era of stomach infrastructure is finally backfiring as more people realize that being fed for a day or a month in exchange for a four year term is foolish. Even some poor that are returning the sachets of rice know it would not last them for a day. Since they can spend that time begging on the street rather than wasting their time on the line. Their blind allegiance as followers of many party leaders has failed to alleviate their poverty.
When political prostitutes call you unprintable names, then turn around after incentives to sing your praises, they are called mercenaries and unprincipled psychopaths. They have lost their integrity as leaders that will attract credible voters to your party. The money spent on these mercenaries could be better spent reviving some of our old neglected factories rather than the pursuit of new foreign contacts. They only give odious loans that create jobs in their countries.
Dangote should be celebrated. However he made his money either from home, from astute business skills or as a front for politicians. He became one of Nigeria’s biggest employers by creating multiple factories in different fields. If more businessmen as Dangote are created, Nigeria as the Poverty Capital of the world would become history.
Gov. Mankind revived an old power project in Oyo, a partnership between Oyo State Government and Elektron Energy Phase 1 of the 11 MV hybrid Power Project. There are many more waiting for revitalization: Ewekoro Cement Plant, Ijebu Rubber, Odutola Tires.
Innoson Motors must be patronized at home to flourish into a world class major industry.
Indonesia overtook us in Palm Oil production. Nigeria was the major producer that neglected its leadership role before Indonesia took over because of their vigorous development of local products which is lacking in Nigeria. There is also Jos Tin Mine, Gold in Zamfara. There are Enugu Coal Mines in the East called dirty energy while China and Western countries strive on coal. Ibadan and Kaduna Peugeot Plants should have been taken over by indigenous industry.
Foreign contracts are the way politicians get foreign currencies directly into accounts abroad. Many local infrastructures can create jobs if awarded locally instead of foreign contractors so that kickbacks are deposited abroad. There is no way any party in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general can avoid the realities of poverty staring in our faces despite the increase in population. If handled judiciously, educated consumers can turn it into an economic booster.
Population can be a double edge sword. We can blame local and foreign Oxford educated economists all we want but repeating the same greed of depending on foreign contracts and experts that create high paying jobs abroad; little local factories and jobs at home, can be seen as insanity repeating itself after all these years. When you are blinded by greed and avarice, individual personal pockets can never let politicians see reason.
Africans are not short of economic intellectuals, native intelligence and patriotic people. But when increasing poverty stared us in the face, we panicked about where the next meal is coming from. The fear of lack of basic needs, has changed our mentality into that of crude accumulators of what we cannot consume in a generation. Even when loots are passed on to children, money they did not work for is spent the way it came: easy come easy go!
The instinctive behavior to hide food in case of or in preparation for scarcity like squirrels is the residual experience of poverty among Africans that have been dispossessing us for a generation or more. Crude accumulation leads to lack of control of our instinctive tendencies towards creed. Above these tendencies is avarice and aggrandizement. It gets worse as we turn into crabs stepping on one another to get out of the barrel and pulling each other down.
We may wonder what type of humans neglect their people that are pressed for basic needs while they waste allocations that are supposed to alleviate the scourge of poverty. We have the resources to avoid the harmful and devastating spread of poverty all over our communities. As many wallow in their own rot, their politicians are aggrandizing and extravagantly waste money on families abroad without any advantage in return for the land they exploited the money from.
Once African leaders are in the position of managing the income and resources of their countries, their first instinct like most politicians around the world is to satisfy their pockets. The difference between Africa and other continents is the percentage of country’s income pocketed and the lack of deterrence. It used to be ten percent kickbacks on contracts, today it is 100 percent plus if you want to be given another contract.
Indeed, we are tired of investigating fake contracts that generate and drain most of our foreign Reserve. We are well aware after all these years that foreign multicorporate businesses are cashing in claiming expertise where they have none and billing Nigeria as P&ID did. Process & Industrial Development International arbitration case about a fraudulent development of 2010 Gas Project; exposed how highly placed Nigerians in Government colluded with foreigners.
Most Africans down to the street level know the problem confronting us but the solution evades us because it is hiding in plain sight. Indeed, every tier of government fraudulently diverted incomes from natural resources into individual pockets. While they demanded huge allocations to be spent on different projects to eradicate poverty in our communities.
