THE THREAT POSED BY THE WIDENING GAP BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR IN NIGERIA.
Igba Ogbole
Igba Ogbole.
On Wednesday, December 11, 2019, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria drew copious attention to the looming crisis over the increasing rate of unemployment in the Country.
Following a motion sponsored by a former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, entitled “Escalating Rate of Unemployment in the Country”, the Senate raised alarm over the unemployment challenge and called on the three tiers of government to step up efforts to create jobs for the citizens.
Many have understandably questioned the sincerity of the Senators in raising this alarm given that majority of them share, directly or indirectly, in the responsibility for, and culpability in the nation’s worrisome unemployment situation.
However, the alarm should be taken seriously by everyone committed to promoting the well-being of this great country and its citizens because the end product of unemployment is poverty, hunger, anger and frustration.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate increased to twenty three point one zero percent in the third quarter of 2018 from a yearly average of twelve point three-one percent from 2006.
By this record, Nigeria occupies the position of the country with the seventh highest unemployment rate in Africa after Congo, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Mozambique and Lesotho.
Though statistics about unemployment enjoys some measure of fluidity and can change easily especially given that these data are never promptly released in our clime, the record shows that urgent comprehensive and daring steps need to be taken by government and all stakeholders to defuse this time bomb.
The urgent need to address this scary level of unemployment is predicated on the fact that it plays a very critical role in the nation’s poverty level which is also reported to be growing at an alarming rate.
According to a 2018 report by the World Poverty Clock, an institution of the World Bank, about ninety million Nigerians, almost half the population, are living in extreme poverty.
On its part, a non-governmental organisation committed to fighting inequality and poverty, Oxfam International, reports that “Nigeria is seen as Africa’s largest economy and one of the fastest growing in the world, yet, more than half of the Nigerian population still grapple with extreme poverty, while a small elite enjoys ever growing wealth”.
The underlying factor behind the high rate of poverty in the midst of stupendous national wealth is the faulty approach to the distribution of the common wealth which encourages a few to live in extravagant riches while the majority suffer abject poverty.
Unfortunately, when subjected to critical analysis, the wealth of most of the super-rich is not entirely and exclusively the product of any peculiar hard work or special intelligence which the poor do not possess or apply to their own efforts.
Rather, the wealth enjoyed by most members of the small elite group sprouted, grew and multiplied from the common wealth, and their only advantage over the poor is that they have direct access to the common till.
In a country where those fortunate to be gainfully employed are fighting for a minimum wage of thirty thousand naira that an average family cannot survive on for a week, a cursory look at the salaries, allowances and other pecks of office of political appointees and high public or private office holders across board will reveal the stunning level of disparity between the rich and the poor.
The huge sums of money being recovered from corrupt Nigerians in the on-going war against corruption is another evidence of how wicked some people, blinded by their sickening greed, can be, stealing the nation corrosively for the benefit of only themselves and their families.
What befuddles the mind even more is why these stolen monies are not invested in this country to at least generate employment and living wage for the suffering heirs to this common patrimony.
The reality, for those who care to know and act, is that there is a growing army of the unemployed, the poor who are frustrated and disgusted with their state of being, and are likely to hold some people responsible for their plight someday.
The increasing cases of armed robbery, ritual killings, militancy, cultism, prostitution and all other forms of agitations are arguably the direct by-products of the frustration of those who see no hope in the horizon.
With the number of graduates churned out of the Nation’s institutions of learning annually, the sea of drop-outs and out-of-school youths, the country is building a behemoth of agitated youths capable of anything.
We therefore appeal, first to the Nigerian Senate, to prove that they are indeed not playing to the gallery with their alarm on the rising unemployment, by going the whole hug and taking measures, including cutting down the cost of running the National Assembly, and enactment of legislations that can assist the Executive tackle the problem head on.
We commend the various poverty alleviation programmes of the Federal Government, domiciled under the National Social Investment Programmes, and urge it not only to sustain the programmes but address their present hiccups and expand their scope to cover more people.
We also commend the Government for its efforts in the recovery of stolen funds under the anti-corruption war, and urge it to ensure that the recovered funds are properly accounted for and invested in job creation and poverty alleviation projects.
We equally urge the Federal Government to intensify efforts, such as addressing the Nation’s power problem comprehensively, to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive so that more jobs and wealth can be generated.
The State Governments which are in direct daily contact with the citizens must also up their game in the area of job creation and poverty alleviation as a deliberate measure to reduce the growing poverty and number of unemployed youths in the various States.
The widening gap between the rich and the poor should not be allowed to degenerate to a level where the rich, surrounded by a sea of hungry, angry looking people, will become eternally scared of openly enjoying their wealth.
As the curtain gradually draws on the year 2019, leaders at all levels must take deliberate workable measures to tackle the challenge of unemployment and poverty, which are indeed time bombs that will spare no one, and should not be allowed to explode in our faces.
