“I wrote with tears and anguish, pouring into
the pages all the pain that life has meant to me.”
UPTON SINCLAIR
The poor rural dwellers
(men, women, and children) are facing many challenges, but the government is
not paying attention to their problems. Any person who treks around the
remote villages will discover the myriad difficulties they endure. Many of
them leave in crushing poverty and despair, as they are not sure of their
next meal. In fact, one would be confronted with disturbing pictures of
human suffering. With only some scattered bright spots, life in the rural
areas is usually lifeless. Jobs are difficult to come by and able-bodied
youths loiter around from dawn to dusk. Thus, because of
diseases caused by lack of good water supply (very few can afford private
water borehole), medical care, poor feeding, hardship and ignorance
(many have slipped into superstitious beliefs) each day in some villages
begins with stories of overnight death. Some would argue that there
is poverty in every society. Yes! In many societies the governments have
effective poverty reduction programs, but in the oil rich Nigeria where the
politicians have unlimited access to the national coffer (some could bargain
to be paid in dollar) the rural dwellers are the forgotten poor. This
attitude exacerbates the poverty problem of the people.
The perennial fuel
scarcity, bad roads that are barriers to movement of people and goods and
lack of functional electricity that causes increase in the price of goods
and services make the lives of the rural dwellers more miserable. Without
modern and efficient refineries and sensible energy policy that ensure
constant supply of fuel the price of petroleum products and other
commodities will continue to ratchet upward. The Central Bank of Nigeria
that has allowed the value of the Naira to depreciate is not helping
matter; this has increased the prices of foodstuffs and social
services and eroded the people’s standard living. Although the figure is in
dispute, the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) recently put the
nation’s December 2003 inflation figure at 14%, up from 13% for November
2003. However, the CBN put its December 2003 inflation figure at 13.8%. No
matter what the inflation rate might be the fact remains that high rate of
inflation would wipe out the people’s saving and frustrate new investment
(economic growth involve savings and investment). The apex bank
should institute appropriate measures to improve the value of the Naira
to boost the nation’s economic restructuring program, create new enterprises
and employment.
There seems to be a
sequence problem in the privatization program; a minimal level of social
safety nets should have been established before selling off state-owned
corporations. For lack of social services to take care of them the displaced
workers would swell the poverty pool when they move back to the villages.
Only the fortunate ones with rich and reliable relatives for assistance
would escape the embarrassment of living in poverty. To avoid the economic
restructuring program from creating increased poverty, inequality and
rancorous society some social safety nets are urgently needed. Despite
repeated promises of poverty alleviation over the years, the actual number
of people living in poverty in the society seems to be increasing. With the
unending corruption scandals in Nigeria, no poverty alleviation program will
be successful in the society (or any other society) without controlling
government waste and corruption, with some dose of transparency,
accountability, and effective leadership.
Poverty destroys
aspiration, and the poor rural dwellers have given up hope on the current
leadership that does not seem to have any real plans for them. They are in
the dark as to what the government at Abuja or their state capitals is
doing. In fact, they are the forgotten group because they are excluded in
the scheme of things. Fairness and principles of democracy dictate that
there should be an equitable distribution of resources in democratic
societies. But events of every passing day that add resonance to the plight
of the poor show the contrary. Recent newspaper reports in Nigeria indicate
that a couple of federal ministers are being paid unimaginable sum of
dollars yearly while many other citizens live on less than 2 dollars
a day (the state of the poor rural dwellers are more dismal). This shows
that ours is a society of poverty for most and greed for a few!
This writer does not begrudge the ministers of their jumbo pay, but
some attention should be directed to the issue of “fairness” because the
poor are not sharing in the gains of the nation’s billion-dollar
petroleum economy. It is beyond comprehension that the government that has
the money for selective jumbo dollar salary payment has allowed
regular wage and salary payment for poor civil servants at local, state and
federal levels to fall into massive arrears. To avoid the peoples’ anguish,
despair and discontents from degenerating into an uprising the leadership
should begin to be responsive to the plight of the masses. The recent
uprising in Haiti should serve, as a good lesson to Nigeria’s corrupt
leaders, because the masses could revolt against any corrupt government that
does not represent their interest. Everyone in the society should, in one
way or another, benefit from the wealth of the nation. As Professor
Joseph Stiglitz rightly noted in Globalization and its Discontents
“development is about transforming societies, improving the lives of the
poor, enabling everyone to have a chance at success and access to health
care and education.” Sadly, or many years the leaders have allowed the
educational and health institutions and socioeconomic infrastructure to
deteriorate to the point of total collapse. Yet, these are among the
prerequisites for an enabling environment for sustainable development and
democracy.
To improve the lot of the
people there is need for laws that would prevent the leaders at local,
state, and federal levels from abusing their powers. Local councils that are
closer to the people have been crippled, because the political leaders are
reaching beyond their domain. This attitude has disrupted the little
assistance (if any) the poor rural dwellers would be getting from their
local councils. In advanced democracies powers are clearly defined and
leaders are conscious of their boundary. Communities compete among
themselves in luring foreign and local investors and each locality is known
for what it produces. And the managers’ of corporations’ work tirelessly to
fructify the enterprises they manage. Unfortunately, ours is a society where
managers keep extracting from their organizations until they collapse.
The society should remove
“incentives for asset stripping at every level” and adopt policies that
would lead to national stability, job creation and true democracy, instead
of the ‘predatory democracy’ that is currently in practice. And Nigeria must
take charge of its destiny and not succumb to the dictates of the
international financial institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO, etc)
because some of their prescribed medicines for economic
growth to the Third World Countries have, more often than not,
pauperized them. Nigeria needs well-educated, dynamic and visionary
leadership and entrepreneurs that could create vibrant private sector and
jobs, revive the dying middle class and reduce poverty in the
society. If the society fails to learn from its mistakes, it will continue
to be confronted with mass unemployment, poverty, and crime.
Therefore, the people need
a workable humane government - one that is concerned about the plight of the
poor rural dwellers. Many of the retired folks that make up the bulk of the
poor in the villages are dying off, and the remaining few are hungry and
angry because their contributions to the development of the nation are not
being appreciated. The rural poor nursing mothers need assistance to provide
better nutrition for their children. For that, the government should invest
in human capital by helping poor women (especially those nursing new babies)
and children from poor families. Vocational skills training (or
re-training), and a program that gives out food (or coupons to buy food)
like the food stamp and the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) in the
United States (that assists poor pregnant women and preschool
children with juice, milk, cereal and infant formula), will be appropriate.
If the children of poor families are well nourished there is a good chance
that they will come to maturity without grave disadvantages. This could,
ceteris paribus, translate into improvement in their productivity and
their poverty profile.
And economic
diversification and the guaranteeing of a minimum income to the poor
and the unemployed can assist in poverty alleviation, but the present breeds
of political leaders do not seem to care about the nation’s poverty problem.
Many of them have their personal interests that are often at odds with those
of the general public. However, if they really care about the people they
should show it by providing good quality education and health care for all
and set up effective social infrastructure, such as the ‘legal system that
can enforce contracts and settle disputes and banks that can lend money.’
They should also promote the application of modern technology in agriculture
for massive food production and protect the environment - the type of
environmental degradation that is going on in the Niger Delta Area
should not be tolerated. More importantly, some form of subsidy to the poor
should be allowed; it is hypocritical that the West that
recommends that the Developing World scrap public
subsidies has varied forms of subsidy for its citizens.
Therefore, for the
privatization program to achieve its purpose effective “institutional
infrastructure” should be put in place. Without this “asset stripping rather
than wealth creations” would result, as the powerful oligarchy and
special interest will rape and pillage the society in the name of
privatization. As some critics have noted, any country that is unable to
provide employment, food and medical care to its citizens, and incapable of
controlling crime, maintain its educational institutions and crumbling
infrastructure, and the environment is really a ‘failed’ State.
Finally, the poor rural dwellers that are not educated or trained in any
valuable skills today will add up to the growing pool of the poor tomorrow.
To break this circle of poverty the leaders must assume the
responsibility of meeting the needs of the people they govern. Without this,
only the divine intervention or mere luck would rescue the
rural dwellers and the forgotten poor from the poverty trap.
Victor E. Dike,
CEO, Center for Social Justice and Human Development (CSJHD), is the
author of Nigeria and the Politics of Unreason: A Study of the Obasanjo
Regime [London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers, Nov 20, 2003].