Governance and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria

Abstract

Poverty is a global issue. It is estimated that almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day (Shah, 2013). The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names (Shah, 2013). Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day) (Shah, 2013).

Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is afflicted by many forms of poverty. The poverty situation in Sub-Saharan African countries is precarious given the percentage of people living below $ 1 a day. The use of socio-economic indicators like per capita income, life expectancy at birth (years), access to health care services, access to safe water, access to education and access to sanitation facilities also depicts the extent of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (Adeyemi, Ijaiya, and Raheem, 2009:166).  HDI scores in most countries of SSA have stagnated or declined since 1990, leaving the region as the poorest in the world. Indeed, 28 of the 31 low human development countries are in SSA (UNDP, 2006: 265). Since 1990, income poverty has fallen in all regions of the world except SSA, where there has been an increase both in the incidence and absolute number of people living in income poverty (Handley, Haggins, Sharma, Bird and Cammack, 2009:1). This sees some 300 million people in SSA – almost half of the region’s population – living on less than US$1 a day (UNDP, 2006: 269).

In Nigeria, an estimated 126 million out of the country`s 168.8million (as estimated in 2012) people live on less than N220.00 or USD1.25 per day. The enormous wealth in the country has not impacted positively on the well-being of the citizens.  (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL;Sen, 2010). Despite the average GDP per capita, for a developing African nation, much of the Nigeria`s population suffers from extreme poverty. Nigeria   ranked   151   out   of   177   countries   in   the   United   Nations Development Index in 2004. Nigeria was ranked 158th  on the United Nations’ Human Poverty Index and over 50% of the population are living below $1 per day. In 2010, Nigeria ranked 159^th out of 177countries in Human Development Index (Odularu, 2008:3; Ogunkua 2011). The disparity between GDP per capita and the number of people living below $1 per day illustrates the enormous income gap in the country. Available data from the Harmonized Nigeria Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) 2009/2010, which remains the follow-up to the Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS) 2003/2004, conducted by the NBS(National Bureau of Statistics) reveals that efforts to alleviate poverty was not satisfactory. For instance, relative poverty and absolute poverty rates increased to 69.0% and 60.9% in 2010 respectively from 54.4% and 54.7% in 2004(2011 Annual Performance Report:38). According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 112.519 million Nigerians live in relative poverty conditions while other poverty measurement standard, absolute measure, which puts the country’s poverty rate at 99.284 million or 60.9 per cent (Onuba, 2012).

Despite the massive revenue from oil, 69 percent of over 100 million Nigerians were living within the poverty bracket.  Nigeria had been unable to translate the huge natural resources at her disposal to the improvement of her citizens’ living standard. According to the former World Bank Vice President and a former Minister for Education, Ezekwesili (cited in The Punch, 2013), “Nigeria has therefore tragically failed to translate her rich resource endowment to improvement in the standard of living of her citizens hence we today have 69 percent of over 100 million of our citizens in the poverty bracket ’’. The rising level of poverty in the country has been attributed to poor governance. Evidence of terribly poor governance in Nigeria is palpable. It manifested in the corrupt, inept political leadership and weak civil institutions to dilapidated infrastructure, insecurity and mass poverty in the midst of opulence (www.punchng.com/editorial/reversing-poor-governance-and-poverty/). Our successive governments have similarly acknowledged our predicament and sometimes penned “home-grown” programmes that cost enormous time and money to produce. The critical difference between Nigeria and other developing countries however has been the unmitigated failure here to adopt good governance practices: faithfully implement plans and build strong institutions that can drive and sustain rapid development (www.punchng.com/editorial/reversing-poor-governance-and-poverty/). Ezekwesili (The Punch, 2013) submitted that Nigeria is the best known example of the African paradox of a land so rich in natural resources, but where the majority of the people are poor. She located the source of the mass poverty in poor governance, she recalled how corruption and economic mismanagement have condemned 69 per cent of the populace to poverty, while the Asian economies have galloped ahead (The Punch, 2013).