The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released a damning and frightening report on the worsening poverty in the country. The agency reported that 133 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line (one dollar per-day).
The report came after the agency carried out survey on multi-dimensional poverty index across the country, which placed some states in gloomy poverty picture. Sokoto state in the North-west ranked first state in high rate of poverty followed by Bayelsa state in South-south.
Disturbed by this unfortunate and horrific report, the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, blamed state governors for the rising poverty in the country. The minister stated that state governors preferred to concentrate on building of projects within the states’ capital, instead of channeling the resources to the rural areas.
Most of the state governors prioritised building of flyovers and airports to building of bridges and roads in the rural areas. He said, “With lack of storage facilities and bad road network, farmers lose their food products”.
The minister may be right. Looking at the huge amount of resources the federal government earmarked and disbursed through its social investment programmes such as N-power, Trader-moni and school feeding programmes, the CBN intervention policies such as Anchor Borrower’s Scheme and its success story, the federal government has indeed paid its own dues.
If the state governors had complemented the federal government’s efforts on war against poverty through good policies and programmes, the report of the alarming rate of poverty could not have cropped up let alone become the topic of discussion in the country. Before the NBS’s scaring report, the World Poverty Clock, an independent poverty monitoring group, in 2021, said 87 million Nigerians were extremely poor. It described Nigeria as the poverty headquarters of the world, overtaking India.
However, the reports did not go down well with our policy makers. It attracted condemnations and denials. Our political leaders quickly debunked the report and described it as false. Now, NBS has reaffirmed the report of the World Poverty Clock and even surpassed its record. Can we still live in denial?
Another shocking revelation came from the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna, who stated that since 2015, state governors have collected whopping N5.4 trillion as statutory allocation and other payments from the federation account. If these facts are not enough, then the release of over N625 billion to nine oil producing states as arrears of derivation and Sure-P funds is enough evidence to show state governments are not cash starved.
Local governments which are closer to the people and are supposed to perform local functions such as: construction of feeder roads, building of schools and hospitals only exist by name. State governments, through joint-account, have rendered them financially handicapped. President Muhammadu Buhari, during the just concluded NIPSS graduation ceremony in Kuru, Jos, accused state governors for stealing local governments funds.
He cited an example that, if N100 million is allocated to a particular local government, the governor will give the chairman N50 million and order him to sign that he collected N100 million. The remaining N50 million belongs to the governor who will spend it as he likes it. President Buhari has stated the obvious. Local governments in Nigeria have been relegated to background by the state governors. When they pay staff salaries at the end of the month, the remaining funds are not enough to carry out capital projects.
There is no gainsaying the fact that corruption and lack of priority among the state governments fuel poverty in the rural areas. Since the return of democracy in 1999, trillions of naira meant for states development which were received by governors have vanished or unaccounted for. Federalism which the country practices has encouraged governors to tailor their policies in tandem with the national policy direction.
Nonetheless, this is not so, as many state governments are working at cross-purposes with the federal government on war against poverty in the country. Provision of good education, electricity and roads to rural communities is a silver bullet to addressing poverty. Besides discouraging rural to urban drift, it will stimulate economic growth.
Local government system should be reformed to become financially independent. The joint-account which serves as a conduit pipe should be abolished. The alarming rate of rural poverty will be fully and squarely tackled if state and local governments become responsive to the yearning and expectations of the rural populace.
Ibrahim Mustspha, Pambegua, Kaduna state.
08169056963
