Despite its vast oil riches and impressive
economic growth, Nigeria has struggled to lift its people out of poverty over
the past three decades.
That fact stands
out in the World Bank’s 2017 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals,which shows that 35 million more Nigerians were
living in extreme poverty in 2013 than in 1990. The Atlas tracks the progress
countries are making to meet 17 development goals set out by the United
Nations, such as reducing economic inequality, the use of clean energy, and
literacy rates. Among the 10 most populous countries for which data is
available, only Nigeria recorded an increase in the number of citizens who live
in extreme poverty over the period of the study. The Atlas defines “extreme
poverty” as living on less than $1.90 a day.
While the ballooning number can be linked to a population surge in Nigeria (the
country grew from 96 to 174 million people between 1990 and 2013), this doesn’t
fully account for the persistence of extreme poverty in the country. All 10 of
the biggest countries in the World Bank’s report also registered population
increases over that period, barring Russia. Nigeria’s 81% population increase
was dwarfed by Ethiopia, which saw a 96% increase over the same period.Nigeria’s progress has been significantly impeded by its inability to
distribute the country’s immense oil wealth to citizens. This is corroborated
by a recent report from
the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank, which measured “prosperity
delivery” to citizens in comparison to a country’s actual wealth. Of the 38
countries covered by the research, Nigeria ranked 26th, with the report saying
it was “under-delivering” prosperity to
its citizens.
Corruption and
incompetence are to blame, and last week served up another reminder of how much
malfeasance costs the country. Emails leaked by anti-corruption charities
Global Witness and Finance Uncovered suggested that a $1.3 billion payment by
oil giants Shell and Eni in 2011 for a lucrative but undeveloped Nigerian
oilfield never went to the public trust for which it was intended. Instead,
almost all of the money (nearly half of that year’s national education budget)
was divvied up as kickbacks between
high-ranking government officials.
Source: Quartz Africa
No comments: