COVID-19: Protecting poor, vulnerable Nigerians

The effects of COVID-19 on the health of citizens and their countries’ economies are devastating and the situation is likely to remain so for a long time.

Of course, this grim world situation has necessitated countries to devise ways and means of guaranteeing the survival of their citizens and economies during and after the pandemic.

In Nigeria, the government has initiated what is now known as the Economic Sustainability Plan, a programme which President Muhammadu Buhari said would stimulate the nation’s economy and provide socio-economic protection to poor Nigerians and other vulnerable groups through pro-poor spending.

The president said so, this week, in a recorded video message played during a high-level UN meeting on trends, options and strategies in poverty eradication across the world.

The president told the meeting that with a population of about 200 million, a large percentage of Nigerians live in various stages of poverty and, thus, the prospect of the population sliding further into extreme poverty is real.

The event took place at UN headquarters in New York and it served as the official inauguration of the Alliance for Poverty Reduction (APE), an initiative of the President of the General Assembly, Professor Tijjani Muhammad-Bande.

Considering the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the risks it holds for reversing decades of progress achieved in the efforts to eradicate poverty globally, the president stated measures adopted by the present administration to revive the nation’s economy in the wake of the pandemic.

He listed measures deployed by his government such as human capital development, efficient management of resources, greater financial inclusion and transformation of the agricultural sector to ensure food security to eradicate poverty.

“Nigeria will also continue to provide easier and increased access to financial services for micro and small-scale businesses through the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme. But we are determined to do more,” he said.

And, yes, Nigeria must do more than what the present administration currently is doing to eradicate widespread and endemic poverty among its citizens. About 90 million people – roughly half of Nigeria’s population – live in extreme poverty. In 2018, Nigeria overtook India, a country with seven times its population, at the bottom of the poverty list of countries.

Put in another context, if poor Nigerians were a country, it would be more populous than many or some countries put together. Almost six people in Nigeria fall into this trap every minute.

Agreed, extreme poverty statistics have always been controversial as some countries and experts disagree with the way it is measured in monetary terms. The World Bank uses $1.90 earnings-per-day as its benchmark.

But no matter what the arguments might be, at the root of poverty lies the deprivation of people’s access to basic necessities such as food, healthcare and sanitation, education and assets. And the evidence, including from especially India, shows that solving these issues, generally, lifts populations out of extreme poverty.

Thankfully, in his speech, the president said Nigeria holds the view that education is a critical driver of sustainable development and possesses immense capacity to eradicate poverty.

“Educating our children, especially the girl-child, contributes significantly to the fight against poverty, environmental sustainability, and improved health, as well as building peace and resilient societies,” he said.

Nigeria is home to over 10 million out-of-school children, around half of whom are girls and it is hardly coincidental that the country with the world’s highest number of out-of-school children is home to the highest number of people living in extreme poverty.

The poorest parts of Nigeria had the worst education indicators and these constitute the biggest percentage contribution to the MPI, followed by nutrition and child mortality – all issues that affect women the most.

Educating girls is proven to have both economic returns and intergenerational impact. For Nigeria to improve on this front, it must increase its investment in education.

Increased investment in healthcare is linked to economic growth, and consequently to reducing poverty. Nigeria is battling with a number of crushing health indicators including malaria, tuberculosis and infant and maternal mortality, all of which have a sweeping impact on productivity.

In order to end poverty, Nigeria must harness the demographic dividends through investment in health, education and livelihoods – especially for our young people.

It can be argued that when countries’ age structures change favourably, meaning that they have more people of working age than dependents, they can see a boost to development, known as a demographic dividend, provided that they empower, educate and employ their young people.

Sub-Saharan African countries, the last frontiers of poverty in the world, are witnessing explosive population growth, and the region is projected to grow by about 51% over the next three decades. The UN projects that Nigeria will have an estimated 398 million people by 2050, making it the third-largest country in the world.

Lower population growth is not an automatic panacea for poverty. Rather, an educated, healthy and resilient youth population is the best catalyst for growth. However, an absence of planning or an allocation of insufficient resources towards harnessing this bulging population could spell doom.

Ultimately, ending poverty in Nigeria will entail improving the country’s economic productivity and opportunities for its citizens. This will mean investing, like President Buhari said, in human capital potential and creating jobs for women and young people, increasing financial access and opportunities for these groups in rural communities, and advancing technological innovation.

Unlocking private-sector partnerships through incentives and social impact bonds as well as boosting entrepreneurships are important ways the government can help to spur and sustain development.

Access to microfinance has been proven to reduce poverty around the world. While there are valid arguments for the use of grants and other social safety payouts to people living in poverty, like the Buhari-led administration does, it is important to bring people into the financial system as this could help the government better plan and integrate services for the poorest of the poor.

Why Buhari, Tinubu are still together

The Presidency said the change of national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not affect the relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and the former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu.

A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said the change is not a manifestation of crisis between the president and Tinubu as it is being speculated in some quarters.

In fact, the Presidency said that the change in leadership was aimed at pulling back the party, faced with an existential crisis from the brink of collapse and taking everyone along in the administration of the party.

The change, apparently based on the prompting of President Buhari, is widely accepted with great relief by lovers of democracy and the rank and file of the party faithful.

Therefore, those attempting to make the president’s timely and calculated move as a misunderstanding between Buhari and Tinubu have, clearly, lost the reason behind the president’s action.

In fact, were it to be a showdown between the duo, it would serve no purpose for especially the APC members on either side of the imaginary feuding persons to go to town with, and hyping, the feud.

After all, misunderstandings, compromises between and among persons and groups here and there, as well as intrigues, are essential and veritable ingredients of politics without which the game will lose its flavour and interesting characteristics. 

Tinubu and Buhari are too old enough in politics to understand that political disputes, where it genuinely exists, is not enough reason to make a budding party like the APC collapse.

Like the Presidency said, in the course of forming the party, Buhari and Tinubu, who are recognised as the founding fathers of the APC, were inspired by democratic norms and national interest, not partisan motivations which, incidentally, are enough reasons to bring them together to form a political party.

Therefore, the comments that are needed from the APC faithful and, indeed, Nigerians, are nothing short of goodwill to enable the party to wax stronger and its leaders provide good governance.

Strong political parties are important to democracy, as they are able to better inform citizens about the issues affecting them and also help the government run more efficiently.

Strong political parties, as its faithful should help the APC become, are a major factor in how democratic a country is governed. Of course, the mere presence of a strong party does not and cannot guarantee an end to a country’s political and socio-economic problems, as nations with strong parties can be severely undemocratic and underdeveloped as well.

Still, it is worth the effort invested in building a strong party which, in any case, is preferable to a weak party which the APC, until Buhari intervened, was fast threatening to become.

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