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15.09.2014 Opinion

Disillutionment Of Poverty In Nigeria

By ABDULGANIYU Mubaraq Abiodun
Disillutionment Of Poverty In Nigeria
15.09.2014 LISTEN

Poverty is the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to survive their basic needs. According to United Nations (UN), until recent, poverty was understood largely in terms of income, to be poor meant that one could not afford the cost of providing a proper diet or home. However, poverty is about denial of opportunities and choices that are widely regarded as essential to live a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others.

Despite the vast resources, Nigeria ranks among the most unequal countries in the world. Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with over 112 million people living on less than $1 a day. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS, 2010), 60.9% of Nigerians are living in abject poverty. The poverty in the north is in contrast to more developed southern states. While in the oil-rich south-east, the residents of Delta and Akwa-Ibom complain that the wealth they generate flows up the pipeline to Abuja and Lagos. Among the causes of poverty are, unemployment, underdevelopment, corruption, war, natural disaster.

Poverty as a social problem is one of the major concerns in the sociological discipline. Different scholars in this field were said to have conceptualised the nature of poverty from different ideologies. However, in Nigeria, several policies have been adopted in order to eradicate poverty but unfortunately the issue of poverty snowballed. The rationale for the composition of this article is to sensitize Nigerians about the intrinsic and extrinsic nature of poverty. The concept of "Culture of Poverty" by Oscar Lewis will be utilized in explaining the psychological and sociological nature of poverty.

The culture of poverty is a social theory that expands the cycle of poverty. Early proponents of this theory argued that the poor are not simply lacking resources, but also acquire a poverty-perpetuating value system. The people in "culture of poverty" have a strong feeling of marginality, of helplessness, of dependency, of not belonging. they are like aliens in their country, convinced that the existing institutions do not serve their interests and needs. People with a "culture of poverty" have very little sense of history.

They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own neighbourhood, their own way of life. When we tried to derive the concomitances between poverty and religion, we realised that the wealthier the population of a particular country, the lesser its religiosity. The GDP of countries generally correlates negatively with their religiosity. This is because religion system as one of the social structures through their doctrines induces people to believe that every individuals has been predestined to what he or she would become in his or her lifetime either rich or poor and this can never be changed. Those tactics were used to subdue the poor in order to maintain social order in the society.

The major religion institutions in Nigeria institution today have played a vital role in escalating the rate of poverty in the country. The clerics were said to be specially trained to cajole and patronize the followers in order to drain their pockets. Followers were always being instructed that it was the Supreme being who enrich them and in order to earn more income subsequently, it is sacrosanct to donate certain percentage from their income to the religion institution and anyone who ceases to follow this belief will have his source of income cursed. As a result of this, so many followers of which majority are low income earners put it upon themselves as being obligatory to make these donations. Obviously, we can conclude that all these clerics use these hard earned incomes to enrich themselves, their colleagues and families.

Also socio-economic classes were formed within the religion institution, of which those who contributed immensely in the economic activities of the institution will be given recognition either by conferring them with tittles and/or always maintaining the executive seat in the congregation. The most saddening thing about Nigeria is that we always strictly abide to the sayings of the religious leaders even much more than the rule of the state. We always see these people as God who created us forgetting that they are just human being like us.

There are several misconceptions about poverty. When you tell an average Nigerian that he or she is poor most especially a civil servant who lives below normal standard of living, just be expecting that person to instantaneously hit you hardly on your face. This is because average Nigerians are ignorant of the relativity of poverty. Instead of striving hard to develop themselves in order to acquire higher standards, they remain stagnant in that same poverty ridden position. At times I ask myself this question, why are we (Nigerians) naturally dull-witted?

This is because average Nigerians lack self development, we prefer venturing in any economic activity that can yield massive wealth overnight using dubious means. It was recorded that one-time Japanese prime minister publicly made the observation that Black people were inferior in intelligence. If they said this in public, I wonder what they were saying in private. Still, Nigeria is one of the largest consumers of Japanese products till present time.

In addition, Nigerians are more superstitious, we always over rely on the supernatural to gratify our needs with little or no physical and mental effort. Nigeria is the only country where they will be told a shoemaker build mansion, acquire Beamers and Porsches. This can be true because the government failed to investigate that person source(s) of income. It is not surprising that we have many reported cases of money rituals among other obnoxious and inhumane acts.

The Nigerian illusion of success is measured by the kind of car we drive, how mighty our place of residence is, the number of wives and children we maintain. Nigerian illusions of success are even translated to the kind of drinks we drink, in this situation you see some people popping expensive wines to show up their acclaimed wealth. I think to a rational person, popping drinks is equivalent to burning the money used in buying these drinks. My own opinion is that, only an insane person could do this. Nigerians, are we all insane???

Lord Luggard, the former governor-general of Nigeria, in 1926, wrote his unfiltered thought about Nigerians. From the "dual mandate" which he wrote, he regarded a typical African, more specifically Nigerian as being happy, thriftless, excitable person, lacking self control, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as oriental loves jewelry.

He continued that a typical Nigerian thoughts are concentrated on the events of the moment and suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past. Having read the opinion of Luggard about we Nigerians. My question to you is, was the man right or wrong? I guess this question would be difficult to answer because of our level of subjectivity and cognitive bias. If Lugard averments about a typical Nigeria tended to be soothe, then I also hereby regard a typical Nigerian as a member of "culture of poverty" according to Oscar Lewis.

In order to experience development in our society, we have to make ourselves our personal policeman. By doing this, we will judge our actions and constrain ourselves from all useless daily activities which hinder self development, and utilize our limited time in making innovations. Also we should research more about our area of interest and make the best out of it, as this could help our society at large. I also implore we Nigerians, the rich, middle-class and lower class to shun lavish spending, instead we should utilize the money towards individual and societal development. It is also advisable for we Nigerians to inculcate the development strategy of the Chinese and the Asian Tigers as they encouraged individual development that later brought about development in large scale.

ABDULGANIYU Mubaraq Abiodun

Email: [email protected]

+2348188505578

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