In the early 80s, Ethiopia in the horn of Africa was in the news across the world ,as a result of a devastating famine that brought the country to its knees. The famine caused pervasive poverty ,with disturbing pictures of children looking so malnourished causing emotional instabilities around the world. An estimated 1.2 million lives were lost as result of the catastrophic famine . At the time of the havoc of famine in Ethiopia ,the country became the face of poverty in the world.
The writer, as a teenager remembers the “We are the World” charity single co-written by the the incomparable musical star, Michael Jackson and music crooner, Lionel Richie and produced by Qincy Jones and Michael Omartian, under the organisation of Bob Geldof, to raise financial aid for the starving people of Ethiopia. A live aid concert that paraded the best of musicians around the world was held at Wembley stadium, with an estimated 1. 5 billion television viewership in 150 countries. The memory of that concert organised by Bob Geldof, lead singer of the Broomtown Rats, still pops up in the writer’s mind.
Today ,the face of poverty in the world is Nigeria, as it now wears the crown of thorns ,as the poverty capital of the world, with 71 million people living in extreme poverty (World poverty clock ,2023) the Crown of thorn used to be worn by India, until Nigeria wrestled and took it away.
Still writhing in the pain of becoming the poverty capital of the world ,a total of 133 million people were pushed into multidimensi5onal poverty, according to the report of National Bureau of Statistics data of 2023 . Akin ,to what the inimitable Fela sang in his music “double trouble for dead body ” as on top of poverty, the country graduated to multidimensional poverty.
Without the big names in the Nigerian music industry, such as Don jazzy, David, Burna Boy ,Wizkid, Techno, Patoranking ,Tiwa Savage ,Omowumi ,Asake ,Flavour ,Phyno ,and others organising a live music concert to raise financial aid for Nigeria and its multidimensional population, just like the pop music King, Michael Jackson and a host of others did in the 80s for Ethiopia, eyes are not blind to the devastating effects of poverty in Nigeria.
A grim picture of poverty in the country can be gleaned from The Guardian 22,March publication captioned “Two Nassarawa University die,14 injured in stampede for palliative for rice”. Without the pangs of poverty what could have moved students to scramble for rice ? The unfortunate incident that happened at the University is a poignant reminder of the monstrosity of poverty in the land. The students that lost their patience and scrambled for rice ,were doing so ,as hunger the cousin of poverty ,could be so cruel . They had to go to the venue where the palliative were shared ,with the remaining strength that hunger left them with ,before the bad news filtered on the tragedy that followed.
A similar incident repeated itself as reported by the Vanguard publication of April, 8,2024 ,with the caption that run thus “NSCDC official, 9 others killed in Sokoto palliative stampede” . The benevolence of Senator Aliyu Magakarda Wammako,representing Sokoto North , became a sore on the throat, as those chased by the monster called poverty pounced on the palliative grains with the strength of a lion ,culminating in the stampede that caused loss of lives and left so many injured . Such reminds the rest of us ,that the monster “poverty” is still on the prowl ,looking for preys to devour .
Why is Peter Obi travelling all over the
North sinking boreholes? To some people it is politics, which is within his right to play. To others, it is another way of waging war against poverty . It is no longer secret that most communities in the North and the country at large have no access to portable drinking water .That is not withstanding having a federal ministry of water resources. Lack of access to portable drinking water is one of the indices of poverty, and most communities sources of drinking water are dirty ponds and wells.
A good number of people in most rural communities have no access to health care ,as there are no primary health care facilities. Legislators on every opportunity talk of constituency projects. If the constituency projects are working, we shall not be where we are ,in terms of dearth of
health care centers in rural communities. With such lack of access to health care by the have-nots in the rural communities how then can poverty be chased away .
Access to education another indices to measure poverty, has been on the downward slide. A good number of the children of the poor are not in school, as they cannot afford the cost of education at every level . The government that is supposed to do something to ameliorate the situation, is looking the other way . The super rich in the country also turn a blind eye to the children of the poor who are not in school ,thereby ignoring the advice of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo who once opined “the children of the poor you fail to train will not give peace to your children “. A few of them, the writer wish to acknowledge are assisting by providing education scholarships to indigent students, while majority delight in exhibiting their wealth than using it to serve humanity.
The writer cannot be accused of hyperbolic statement, if he says that most Nigerian families go home every night hungry. Do they like going to sleep without food, the answer is “no”. The simple reason is that most people live under penury that they hardly can afford so many things of life . The writer ,stumble into a story of a nail cutter published in one of the newspapers in the land ,where the fellow ,who was a father of three ,declared that he has never seen twenty thousand naira in his entire life . He equally said that him and his family go to sleep most times without food. That pathetic story ,is the
reality of so many families in Nigeria . Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs are aware of some of these stories, but what those that have been asked to take charge of such unacceptable situations are doing is taking charge of their pockets first.
The other day ,Chief Dele momodu ,the founder of Ovation magazine, was pleading with the people inundating his lines for help to forgive him for not responding to their needs, as he had his own personal projects that he was battling with . Chief Momodu ,is not alone as to people asking for one help or the other are everywhere . They ambush you on the Facebook or Wassap ,with a request for help . Most times they send you their bank account details for you to credit their accounts. Such is the monstrous face of poverty .
Can the monstrous faces of poverty dissappear or be less visible? The answer is ,yes. To make that happen, Nigerian leaders should go for economic tutorial in India ,which used to be the capital of poverty in the World ,to know how they were able to extricate themselves from occupying such ignoble position. We must also fix the trouble with Nigeria ,which the celebrated departed novelist, professor Chinua Achebe laid on the door step of leadership.
Dr Uche Akunebu is the Head of poets of the world (Poets del Mundo) Nigerian chapter ,and the Editor of African book series of the international human rights arts Festival based in New York.
