Poor, rich north

“One day the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich.” Anon 

Statistics on poverty levels in Nigeria released by the National Bureau of Statistics have raised issues which can be interpreted in many ways, one of which is that Nigeria represents an alarming paradox. There are, as with all statistics, serious issues related to definitions of the poor, such as the index of $1(N150) earning, but all definitions tend to suffer similar or worse limitations. The value in statistics which highlight poverty at individual, household, regional or national levels is essentially as guides in highlighting the complexities of social existence, and values which can be deployed towards developing policies for political and economic development. It is important to pay attention to them, although policy makers and politicians tend to welcome or dismiss them according to the manner they hint at the standards or their quality of governance. At a time when Nigerians are being bombarded with stupendous figures released (and largely wasted) to states in the south-south; or much smaller amounts frittered away by governments in the north, it is important that we do not ignore these statistics. 

According to the statistics, Sokoto State is the poorest state in Nigeria, with a poverty rate of 81.2%. Katsina is second with 74.5%; Adamawa is next with 74.2%; Gombe has 74.2%; Jigawa 74.1%; Plateau 74.1%; Ebonyi 73.6%; Bauchi 73%; Kebbi 72% and Zamfara 70%. States with lowest poverty rates were Niger (33.8%); Osun 37.9% and Ondo (45.7%); Bayelsa (47%) and Lagos (48.6%). Five of the poorest states in the north-west zone (out of the seven) are therefore the poorest in the country. The zone has an average poverty rate with 71.4%.

The poorest region of the nation, the north-west zone has a population of 35.7m, 14million more than the total population of the south-south, and almost 20m million more than the south-east. In fact, the north-west zone alone has about the same population with the south-east and south-south combined. The three northern zones have a much larger proportion of the nation’s human capital, land mass and agricultural assets, and they habor its fortunes in solid minerals yet to be exploited. If the right atmosphere is created, and appropriate policies put in place, the north of Nigeria can feed the entire west African sub-region. It will earn 20 times what the nation earns from oil and gas in minerals and other natural resources, and save the nation trillions by developing and using renewal resources and energy.

The paradox of the North lies in its potentials for greatness, and the existence of unacceptable levels of poverty. Its huge and expanding population barely produces what it consumes; and it does not represent the large market it should because it has no purchasing power. Its economy is still substantially peasant, and its patchy infrastructure is decaying. Its young population has no hope of quality education or opportunities to acquire skills, so it will feed its poverty even more. It has no industrial base, no skilled manpower, and no capital to invest in developing agricultural technology or its vast water resources. It has a large majority of the voting population, yet its political fortunes dwindle by the day.  

The region produces quite possibly 100 almajirai to every university or polytechnic graduate. It has some of the richest men in all of Africa, and the highest rate of V.V.F in Africa. It has the lowest success rates in qualifying examinations into post-secondary institutions, and the highest percentage of unqualified teachers in its primary and secondary schools. Its elite go to India, Egypt and Dubai for medical attention, while the vast majority of citizens do not have functional Rural Health Centers. Its politicians drink expensive bottled water and spend millions every year on feeding, while millions of citizens do not have access to potable water.

The areas of growth in the North are population and insecurity. Families breed with scant attention to what future lies in wait for their children. Insurgency rooted in poverty and disenchantment with a decaying social structure threaten the poor, because the leaders and the rich are largely protected. Huge amounts are collected by government every month and spent on governments, not the people. Easy money creates circles which feed fat on local politics, and alienates the bulk of the population. State institutions shrivel and atrophy, and the basic cycle of life is barely sustained.

Statistics will be disputed, and even the assertions above will be challenged by governments and politicians. Yet insecurity spreads; young people take to drugs and lend their limbs and lives to politicians, and the rest of Nigeria moves on as if the desperate situation in the north is not its problem.

For the vast majority of Nigerians, life is a desperate drudgery which they will pass on to their children. Desperately poor people live in the south-south amidst trillions available to improve their lives. In the north, traditional fatalism is being replaced by anger and frustration at the failure of the state and the democratic system to make tangible differences in the lives of citizens. Across the nation, anger and increasing poverty could combine to scuttle the gains made in efforts to give people a chance to improve their lives by their toils and the political choices they make. There is an opportunity to redress the weaknesses in the quality of governance and distribution of resources across the nation, if the leadership will even acknowledge that the problem exists, that is.