58 killed, 78 injured in Dikwa IDP camp attack

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The National Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday, confirmed 58 people lost their lives and 78 other victims were injured after suicide bombers detonated explosives at the Internally Displaced Persons camp in Dikwa, Borno State.

Emergency workers reported that the incident occurred when the IDPs queued up to collect their morning food ration in a camp that currently accommodates over 50, 000 people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The Zonal Coordinator of NEMA in the North East, Mohammed Kanar, said some of those killed had been buried while the injured were moved to unnamed medical facilities.

Responding on Wednesday evening, the Nigerian government circulated a statement condoling with families of victims of the Dikwa attack.“On behalf of the federal government of Nigeria, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, expresses his profound condolences to the families of the victims of yesterday’s suicide bombing of an IDP camp in Dikwa, Borno State, and also the entire people and government of the state,” a statement by the vice president’s office said.

The IDPs: Lasting Ways To Re-Build Their Lives With Full Re- Integration In Nigeria

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In the history of Nigeria, a major unlimited crisis or national outbreak that will face us for a very long time is the issue of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) which is due to nature, tribal, religious induced conflicts and Boko Haram devastation especially.

Certainly, donating all sorts of relief materials to these involuntary migrants within their own country is a gesture that is needed more than ever at this time.

But with no adequate statistics on the numbersand whereabouts of the IDPs, fullysatisfying their basic needs remain a growing challenge. So identifying these persons in terms of their numbers and locations and then coordinating their care is a task that should continue aggressively.

Per the Government’s directives, forfeited materials and relief items in various Customs warehouses are being distributed to located IDPs and this is a good move but these items’ medical fitness and usage, must constantly be checked on. Especially, when they include food, clothing and other living items.

Any meaningful committee on matters relating to the IDPs must go beyond the typical or old style drawing process as in getting persons from various government agencies like the Police, Customs Service, Immigration Service and NGOs. There is a present day need to include or continue to engage clinicians and researchers from Universities, teaching and specialist centers as these psychosocial, psychiatric, psychological, social work, educational, childcare, medical, nutritional, vocational, physical planning and other related expertise know much more about the short and long terms needs of the IDPs.

2016 Budget and poverty alleviation

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By all accounts, the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to redeem his campaign promise of removing millions of Nigerians out of poverty is significant and exceptional. Analysts observe that although successive administrations initiated various measures and policies aimed at alleviating abject poverty among Nigerians, such efforts have not yielded meaningful results.

A World Bank’s global poverty rating placed Nigeria among the five poorest countries in the world. The report revealed that most Nigerians lived on less than one dollar per day. Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank President, while releasing the report at the April 4, 2014 IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in New York, emphasised that Nigeria had one of the largest concentration of poor people. According to him, seven per cent of the world poor live in Nigeria in spite of the rebasing of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that ranked it as the largest economy in Africa.

Concerned about this development, President Muhammadu Buhari has earmarked N500 billion for social welfare packages to the vulnerable persons. This is contained in the administration’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper presented to the National Assembly. Buhari said that the Federal Government would collaborate with state governments in the implementation of the N500 billion social welfare packages to the vulnerable. “The Federal Government will collaborate with state government to institute well structured social welfare intervention programmes such as school feeding programme initiatives, conditional cash transfer to the most vulnerable,’’ he said. According to him, these interventions will start as pilot scheme and work towards securing the support of donor agencies and development partners to minimise potential risks. He said that the government would create a phased social welfare programme to cater for a larger population of the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.

Also, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, assured Nigerians of the Federal Government’s commitment to their welfare. He insisted that provisions made in the 2016 budget would reduce the sufferings of Nigerians, noting that the measures would be targeted at unemployed graduates, market women, artisans and farmers, among others. “We are aiming to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty through massive social interventions,’’ Mohammed said.

According to him, the school feeding programme that will provide one meal per day to school children, the conditional transfer of N5,000 monthly to 25 million most vulnerable Nigerians and access to loans by different categories of people, are among the measures for which provisions have been made in the 2016 budget. “In addition to providing succour, these measures will also stimulate the economy; just imagine the impact on the poultry sector alone if, for example, one egg is given daily to one million school children,’’ he said.

Poverty Eradication Efforts in Nigeria

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Successive regimes in Nigeria have tried different policies and programmers geared towards reducing the level of poverty in the society through a number of ways.  First, through the activities of its ministries/agencies; second, by collaborating with international agencies; third, and more importantly, through the establishment of agencies equipped solely to fight rising poverty and unemployment in Nigeria.

The Joda Panel, established at the inception of the civilian administration of Obasanjo to review the various poverty eradication programmers of the previous regimes, identified over twenty such institutions.  They are:

i.                 The National Directorate of Employment (NDE)

ii.                Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN)

iii.               Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank Ltd (NACB)

iv.               Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC)

v.                 National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE)

vi.               National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA)

vii.              National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA)

viii.             National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education

ix.                Federal Agricultural Coordinating Unit (FACU)

x.                 Directorate for Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFFRI)

xi.                Agricultural Projects Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (APMEU)

xii.               Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP)

xiii.              Industrial Development Centre (IDC)

xiv.              Federal Department of Rural Development (FDRD)

xv.               Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources and Power and Steel

xvi.              River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs)

xvii.             Family Support Trust Fund (FSTF)

xviii.           National Centre for Women Development (CWD)

xix.             Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (NBCI)

xx.              Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB)

xxi.             Nigerian Export-Import Bank

xxii.            National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND)

Perhaps a note on some of these institutions and programmes may be useful especially when some of them were designed to deal with the problems of poverty directly while others do it indirectly. 

The River Basin Development Authorities established by Decree 37 of August 1976 is one of the earliest attempt at combating poverty via improved agricultural production.  The main objective of the RBDAs is the economic exploitation and management of the land water resources of their respective areas of operation with particular but varying emphasis on the development of agriculture, fishing, human settlement, infrastructural facilities and industry as well as the improvement of their environment.  

The Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) enunciated in 1979 by Gen. Obasanjo’s military regime is another indirect effort at poverty eradication.  The program had the specific focus of increasing food production on the premise that availability of cheap food will raise the nutritional level of the ordinary Nigerian and invariably lead to high per capita income and improved standard of living.  OFN lasted until Shagari’s civilian government (1979-83) took over.  

World Bank report on poverty in Nigeria

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It is indeed a shame that for all her Gross National Income (GNI), Nigeria would be rated so highly in global poverty index.

The recent assessment by the World Bank on the situation of poverty in the world, where it ranked Nigeria third among world’s ten countries with extreme poor citizens is so worrisome and has once again provided reason to query what the government is doing about the endemic poverty as well as the usefulness of the recent rebasing of the Nigerian economy. This newspaper feels that the woeful result of the World Bank report is a very necessary wake up call on the Nigerian government to rethink its systems and policies that have continued to increase poverty in the country.

From the assessment, the World Bank established that Nigeria with about 170 million population falls among countries with extreme poverty whose over 70% population live on $1.25 (N200) or even less per day.  Specifically, the report revealed that 7% of the 1.2 billion people living below poverty line in the world are Nigerians. The report stated thus: “The fact is that two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor are concentrated in just five countries: India, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). If you add another five countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, the total grows to 80 per cent of the world’s extreme poor.” Our survey discovered that the World bank ranked these countries based on their population and their share of the 1.2 billion extreme poor people in the world thus: India (33%), China (13%), Nigeria (7%), Bangladesh (6%), DRC (5%), Indonesia (4%), Pakistan (3%), Tanzania (3%), Ethiopia (2%) an Kenya (1%).

For this very poor result to be the fortune of a country that was recently rebased and declared by the national bureau of statistics (NBS) to have a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $510 billion (over N8o trillion), and as such the largest economy in Africa and the 26^th largest economy in the world, is grossly condemnable and most unacceptable. It is indeed a shame that for all her Gross National Income (GNI), Nigeria would be rated so highly in global poverty index. We feel the story should have been the reverse. It is so saddening to note that less than 10% of the country’s population amasses and controls over 90% of the country’s wealth and resources, causing so much poverty and leaving so many citizens dying of hunger and disease. The consequence has since manifested in the high rate of crime and insecurity in the country. This is rather most unfortunate. 

Among the causes of the endemic poverty in Nigeria as stated by the World bank report include harmful economic and political systems, national conflict and violence, human rights abuses, weak government effectiveness and efficiency, weak respect for rule of law, weak control of corruption, environmental conditions and changes, and population growth and changes. All of these are easily identified with Nigeria. But we feel that none of them would account for acute poverty in Nigeria as that concerning weak control of corruption. There is an incredible high rate of corruption in Nigeria, which has seen Transparency International (TI) ranking her equally very poorly in the global corruption index. 

Rural poverty in Nigeria

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The Federal Republic of Nigeria has a population of more than 160 million – the largest in Africa – and a fast-growing economy. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, contributing about 40 per cent of GDP. The agriculture sector employs approximately two-thirds of the country's total labour force and provides a livelihood for about 90 per cent of the rural population. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava, yam and cowpea – all staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a major producer of fish. Yet it is a food-deficit nation and imports large amounts of grain, livestock products and fish.

Nigeria's huge agricultural resource base offers great potential for growth. Recent government policies have started to show results: The agricultural sector reportedly grew by 7 per cent a year between 2003 and 2007, and at a slightly lower rate in recent years.

Still, the area of land under cultivation could be doubled. Of an estimated 71 million hectares of arable land, only about half is presently under production. And there is substantial scope for an increase in irrigation, which now covers only 7 per cent of irrigable land. Irrigation and other inputs would substantially increase average yields for major staple crops, which are below those in other developing countries.

Despite Nigeria's plentiful agricultural resources and oil wealth, poverty is widespread in the country and has increased since the late 1990s. Some 70 per cent of Nigerians live on less than US$1.25 a day.

Poverty is especially severe in rural areas, where up to 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, and social services and infrastructure are limited. The country's poor rural women and men depend on agriculture for food and income. About 90 per cent of Nigeria's food is produced by small-scale farmers who cultivate small plots of land and depend on rainfall rather than irrigation systems.

The poorest groups eke out a subsistence living but often go short of food, particularly during the pre-harvest period. The productivity of the rural population is also hindered by ill health, particularly HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Women play a major role in the production, processing and marketing of food crops. Yet women and households headed solely by women are often the most chronically poor members of rural communities. Men have higher social status and, as a result, more access to schooling and training. In recent decades, the number of men migrating from rural areas in search of employment has increased, and the number of households headed solely by women has grown substantially.

Activist decries high poverty rate among Nigerian women

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“There will be no nation without women; hence when women are impoverished, the nation will also be impoverished” – UI’s Vice Chancellor.

A human rights activist, Mashood Erubami, has decried the high rate of poverty among women in Nigeria.

Mr. Erubami, the Director, Centre for Human Rights and Ethics in Development (CHRED), said this in a lecture he delivered at the 5th Professor Awe Annual Inspirational Lecture held at the University of Ibadan.

In the lecture titled “Women: Politics and Poverty, Implication for the Nation,” Mr. Erubami said that a country where more than half of its population representing women are poor is not a healthy nation.

He said when majority of women in any country are poor, they would resort to negative practices, such as prostitution, drug peddling, women trafficking and stealing.

To confront the challenges posed by poverty, Mr. Erubani called on women to forge active alliance and drop the idea of “we can’t do it and hoist the confidence of we can”.

The activist also called on the government to move beyond the ratification of international covenants on women and girls’ rights, by taking concrete steps to implement such rights.