Day for The Eradication of Poverty

THIS year marks the 20th anniversary of the celebration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. About 100,000 people rallied in Paris, France, on October 17, 1987, to draw the world’s attention to the pains of the poor. The United Nations passed a resolution — resolution 47/196 — and the Day for the Eradication of Poverty became a global event in 1993.

THE UN resolution states: “Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”

TWENTY years down the road, poverty still blocks many people’s way to happiness. Twenty-three per cent of the world population is said to live on less than a dollar a day. Africa accounts for many of the world’s poor. Africa contributes more than 300 million people — almost half of the continent’s population — to the 1.2 billion people that are said to live in extreme poverty around the world.

MANY African countries do not have poverty eradication programmes. Bad policies make the ranks of the poor to swell like a cancerous growth. Rigged elections sometimes lead to insurgencies. The mad Foday Sankoh said he took up arms because Sierra Leonean politicians were corrupt. His brutal rebellion led to the murder and mutilation of tens of thousands of civilians. Many Sierra Leoneans are poorer than they were before Sankoh’s war.

CONFLICTS consume cash needed for programmes beneficial to the people. Africa was said to have received $300 billion in aid in the last 15 years. It spent an equal amount of money on conflicts during the same period. Wars displace people and their lives are usually never the same again. Internally displaced people are poorly cared for and refugees often face hostility in their countries of refuge.

NATURAL disasters sometimes lead to poverty. Droughts dry out the soil and destroy crops. Deluge drowns crops and livestock. The farmers are almost permanently ruined as they get no help from the government. In better organised societies, natural disasters do not automatically deposit those affected in the pit of poverty. The displaced are housed and fed and are helped to pick up the pieces of their shattered existence.

THE situation is different in many African countries. Government officials turn the misery of people into a money-making opportunity. They sell materials donated to the victims. Only recently in Nigeria, flood victims were forced to sleep on the cold, bare floor because the mattresses donated to them had been taken away by some officials.

POVERTY is in disturbing evidence in Nigeria. Many Nigerians are dirt poor. They live in overcrowded hovels where sanitation and a good supper are as familiar as strangers. Many Nigerians scavenge for food like animals. The dustbin is their soup kitchen.

NIGERIA has no soup kitchens. The hungry in Nigeria get no help. There are no soup kitchens and no welfare cheques. The poor must take care of themselves. Some of them employ shameful means to try to survive.

MANY potential professors have become prostitutes to put food on their tables, it has been said. Many female university students get no financial support from their cash-strapped parents. And it is possible that some of the male undergraduates arrested for armed robbery took to crime to take care of their basic needs. Their conduct is, of course, inexcusable and the guilty should be severely punished.

A Professor once gave a paper on the “dynasty of poverty”. It is a pleasing but a curious phrase. A dynasty is about rulers. The poor are not rulers, can never be rulers. A person who has not eaten for two days will not think about ruling his country but about food. His participation in the electoral process will probably be as a thug or as a voter bought with a few cups of salt.

THERE is a genealogy of poverty in Nigeria and not a “dynasty of poverty”. The grandfather of the poor man of today was probably poor. He was unable to send his own son to school. The son, without skills, earned a precarious living and was unable to send his own son, the poor man of today, to school.

THE poor man of today has five children and the family lives in one room in a run-down building. The children know the facts of life and nothing more; they do not go to school. Their father was an inner city thug and they will probably become one. The cycle of cruel want and deep ignorance will continue.

BUT it can be broken and it should be broken. Those who have cornered the country’s resources need to be sensible. It is in their interest to be less selfish. Many government schools are in a deplorable state. The walls sometimes collapse on the children and many teachers are not dedicated. But the power elite send their children to top government schools or to exclusive private schools in Nigeria or abroad. Their children get the best jobs, though they may have been mediocre students.

THE poverty alleviation programme of the Obasanjo administration enriched the rich. There is no record of anybody benefitting from the initial N10 billion released by the government. The people put in charge of the programme should be asked to account for the money.
THE government has not coherently addressed poverty in the country. Millions of people are unemployed and decayed infrastructure is making it impossible for millions more to earn a good living. Indeed, companies continue to fail, throwing thousands of people out of work. Poverty is increasing and not decreasing in Nigeria. Nigeria has only eight years to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the number of poor people by half.

A tall order, but it will be foolish not to try.