By DADA AYOKHAI
The Civil Empowerment and rule of Law Initiative, CERLSI, a civil society working on elections, rule of law, human rights and community engagement for good governance in Nigeria has said that unless the Nigerian government works at reducing monetary poverty in Nigeria, the country stands a very good chance of staying as world poverty capital of the world permanently.
In a press statement, Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku, CERLSI deputy executive director said that Monetary poverty in Nigeria is measured at 40.1% according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS. In Nigeria, the poverty headcount rate increases as the household size increases. Households with one person have the lowest poverty headcount rate at 2.66%, while households with 10 or more people have the highest poverty headcount rate starting at 67.27
‘The import of that kind of condition is that nearly 100million of Nigerians have per capita expenditure below the poverty line of N137,430 per year. In real time, that translates to living on N376.50 per day and very less than one US dollar. If you divide that by the N5,000 so-called palliatives that the Federal government is giving as dole to cushion the ill-thought removal of fuel subsidy, you just find that this is unacceptable in a Nigeria so endowed with human and natural resources, and with a president said he wants the poor to breathe’, Mr Etemiku said.
Mr Etemiku said that the answer to reducing monetary poverty in Nigeria is not to throw money at the problems, but to set a tone of fiscal accountability and responsibility, transparency and good governance.
‘In a Nigeria where citizens are unable to cross the poverty threshold, several instances of financial recklessness are ascribed to public officials who should show the way in prudent and thoughtful application of scarce resources. In most of these instances of financial recklessness, it is often for political patronages. We wonder here at CERLSI what reaction a people often asked to make sacrifices would make to reports that some government officials have new SVC bought in billions of naira, while the people they should serve wallow in unacceptable poverty. How do you explain it to the man on the street that monies being borrowed are not being used to serve the political class?’, Mr Etemiku said.
About CERLSI – To educate Nigerian citizens on the import of the vote, their rights and privileges under the laws of Nigeria.Our focal areas includecitizen engagement and capacity building, Rule of Law, Community advocacy, Media & Human Rights.
Contact:
CERLSI
House 1, Street A7, Citec Estate
Mbora, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria.
+2348156171133, majirioghene@protonmail.com,
