Poverty in Nigeria is Risk to Effective Governance – Obi

In response to the 2022 Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index, Peter Obi, the presidential flagbearer for the Labour Party, warned Nigerians against the rising poverty rate and its effects. According to him, if the situation is not controlled, it can hamper good governance and disturb economic stability.

Since the effect high poverty rate cannot be overemphasised, Obi said, “The rural part of Nigeria is trapped in abject poverty; we leave our children miserable and uneducated. 27% of school-age children are out of school and poor; 29% of all school-aged children are not attending school, and 94% of school children are abysmal.

The multidimensional Poverty Index is the best mirror of failure of governance in the country, despite earning trillions in oil revenues, despite borrowing trillions of naira for infrastructure development.”

Speaking about the impact of poverty on the people, he said that half of the Nigerian population lives in abject poverty, and two-thirds cannot afford basic sanitation, education, nutrition, and medical services.

He said, “It is a terrible disgrace and disservice to a country with our tremendous natural and human resources. The political economy of this report should be made clear to every Nigerian voter because what it simply means is that the government is not working.

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It means that the state is working for the few and not all of the country’s citizens. It means that the future is terrible for every Nigerian- young or old, rich or poor. Unless the situation is arrested, with our population estimated to reach 400 million in the next 28 years, Nigeria will become a security risk to entire sub-Saharan Africa.”

 Peter Obi added in a tweet, “We can wipe off multidimensional poverty in less than a decade in Nigeria. Let’s do it together. Let us end the corruption and incompetence with our votes.”

The 2022 Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index

The Multidimensional Poverty Index released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that 133 million Nigerians are victims of multidimensional poverty. That is, two out of three Nigerians are considered poor. Out of the 133 million poor population, 86 million live in the north, and 47 million are in the south.

The report released by NBS was done together with some development partners, namely the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

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