Friday Sermon: Poverty: Disturbing Developments

By Babatunde Jose

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel  that society is a organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe” –  Fredrick Douglas 

These are very perilous times for policy makers as the plight of the people is getting worse by the day. Even those gainfully employed are having to spend a high percentage of their income on transportation and food which is becoming increasingly unaffordable. 

No doubt the scale is tipping towards a revolt when the poor will start eating the rich. It is a matter of time. We had thought the fight would start at the bus stop but there are signs that it might now start in the offices where workers would embark on wildcat strikes in protest of their low wages and inability to survive. 

The glorified resilience of Nigerians has become a factor for further exploitation of the citizenry in unimaginable dimensions. But for how much longer can this hold? The answer is definitely, not blowing in the wind.

Which brings us to the fundamental issue of poverty which continues to spread like wild harmattan fire.

Poverty is the oldest and the most resistant virus that brings about a devastating disease called under-development. It is a complex phenomenon that generally refers to inadequacy of resources and deprivation of choices that would enable people to enjoy decent living conditions.

I see poverty as a condition of human wretchedness, despondency, deprivation and want. A state of lacking in the necessities of life such as food, clean water, shelter, basic health care, basic education, and a state of abject impoverishment.

Poverty is not only a disease but a state of spiritual rejection. Poverty is a political and economic crime that sentences the individual into a social and spiritual prison, making that person cursed as in Joshua 9:23 King James Version “Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water. . “.  

People in a state of poverty are politically voiceless; they are emasculated financially and have no business in the political domain; they are constantly preoccupied with eking a living from the dustbin of society. And they are at the mercy of ‘rulers’ who are supposed to protect their interest and ameliorate their living conditions. It’s as if they were born to suffer.  

Ironically, the country harbours some of the poorest people in the world with as many as 69 percent of the population, living below the poverty line according to the National Bureau of Statistics Report.

This vast incidence of ‘poverty in the midst of plenty’ has severally been linked to the endemic corruption in the country, as it involves the massive stealing of resources that would have otherwise been invested in providing wealth-creating infrastructure for the citizens.

The most noticeable indicator of poverty is hunger, lack of daily bread. And this is where any attempt to ameliorate poverty should start from, putting food on people’s tables. Malnutrition is one of the greatest conditions of the poor. It also engenders disease and death.

The malnourished are prone to all kinds of health challenges, hence most of the past interventions have had to do with enhancing food production. But as we shall see, they failed woefully, and you and I know the main reason: Corruption!

Can the new administration make a difference? Can they walk the talk? Can the new administration initiate new poverty alleviation policies that would make a change in the narrative?

Successive governments have sought to address the challenges posed by poverty by focusing on agriculture and food production, rural development, improved access of farmers and rural producers to credit, and encouraging the development of small and medium-scale enterprises. The measures can be summarized as follows:

·        In the 1970s Pilot integrated agricultural and rural development projects were embarked upon in Funtua, Gusau and Gombe, and later expanded to other parts of the federation.

·        1972 and 1973, respectively saw the establishment of the National Accelerated Food Production Programme and Nigeria Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB).

·        Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), an integrated rural development strategy proposed by the United Nations, implemented in 1976.

·        The Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) was established in 1977.

·        The Green Revolution Programme of 1979.

·        The Back to Land Programme introduced in 1984.

All these programmes failed to have substantial impact on poverty levels and some, such as the Green Revolution, were criticised for serving as conduits for enriching senior civil servants and military officers who acquired large tracts of land (for the Green Revolution) at the expense of peasant landowners.

·        In 1986, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), was adopted in Nigeria. But it engendered several unintended social and economic problems. 

Other poverty reduction strategies included the following:

·        The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) – involving the development of 3,000-5,000 hectares of land in each state between 1992 and 1994. This project was hijacked by highly placed public officers and rich individuals. Instead of large scale food farms, many of them were growing mangoes for export. In Lagos State for example, the land on both sides of the Lekki/Epe highway were allotted for agriculture. Today they are built up as choice real estate. And we are hungry!

·        The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) was introduced in 1989.

·        The Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) was started in 1986.

·        The Strategic Grains Reserve Programme – introduced in 1987.

·        The Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) – established in 1997.

·        The Primary Health Care Development Programme – launched in 1987.

·        People’s Bank of Nigeria (PBN).

·        National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND);

·        Community Banks.

·        Nomadic Education Programme.

·        National Urban Mass Transit Programme (NUMTP).

These interventions were intended to reduce poverty in the country, but their designs and implementations were faulty, lacked focus, ventured into too many activities, and became unsustainable. Subsequent interventions since the return to civil rule have also met with the same fate, both at state and national level. They have been mostly unsuccessful because of the proverbial ‘Nigerian Factor’, a euphemism for corruption.

·        In the year 2000, the Federal Government introduced the Poverty Alleviation Programme, for which it earmarked the sum of N10 billion which was supposed to create 200,000 jobs. The stipend approach was exploited by some privileged members of society who filled the available places with their own protégés, thereby denying the intended beneficiaries access to the funds.

·        Along the same line, the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) was created in January 2001 with the goal of eradicating absolute poverty in the country by the year 2010.  Despite the huge sum committed, this programme has made very little impact on the poverty situation in Nigeria.

·         The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).

These efforts hardly impacted the problem of poverty due to a combination of factors, including poor policy formulation and coordination, policy discontinuities, weak institutional framework, and lack of effective coordination among the various tiers of government, and of course, the ubiquitous corruption.

Meanwhile the rich get richer even as poverty and inequality deepen. Can the current administration get the right formulae for poverty eradication? That is the trillion naira question.

There is a need to review past efforts and finetune them with a view to getting things right for a change. It is getting late, “Every day the bucket a-go a well, one day the bottom a-go drop out.” Marley.

These are worth reflecting on by our leaders and concrete solutions sought if we are to embark on the road to sustainable development. Imam Muiz Zubayr of the Faith Unite Muslims, Lagos, in a sermon, emphasised that the decay and poverty in the country were because of failure of leadership. He quoted from Quran where Allah says:

Whatever misfortune happens to you, is because of the things your hands have wrought, . . . . . . (Quran 42:30)

“Therefore, the agony, evils, misfortunes, pains, economic instability, stagnation and backwardness being experienced in the country today are as a result of failed leadership. Therefore, our misfortunes and sufferings are not from God, but from ourselves,” said Ustaz Muiz.

He identified justice as a dynamic characteristic of a leader. According to him, a just leader will, always, serve and prioritise the interests of the followers and not his own interest.

And call-in remembrance the favour of Allah unto you, and his Covenant, which he ratified with you, when ye said: “We hear and we obey”: And fear Allah, for Allah knoweth well the secrets of your hearts. (Quran 5:8) 

It is therefore imperative to remind our leaders:

Allah doth command you to render back your Trusts to those to whom they are due; and when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice: Verily how excellent is the teaching which He giveth you! For Allah is He Who heareth and seeth all things. (Quran 4:58) 

Barka Juma’at and happy weekend.