Who Are The Poorest Of The Poor In Nigeria?

By Bayo Oluwasanmi

The riches of the few in Nigeria are an injustice to the multitude of poor Nigerians. I lay awake in the night thinking of the inhuman conditions in the land. The poor majority stagers to the rest of humanity needing love and facing their own death. 

In this part of the world, citizens are not free to share what nature offers here. They are not allowed to explore or maximise their God-given potentials into which they are born. Throughout, their lives have been sealed into laden slums as into living tombs.

Those running the federal, state, and local governments are terrible people. They are cannibals and wolves, who destroyed Nigeria and Nigerians. They treat Nigerians as sub-humans. The distribution of Federal Government’s stimulus package to soften the effects of lockdown on Nigerians as a result of Coronavirus, is yet another example of a government that serves as enemy of its own citizens.

As usual, members of National Assembly abdicated their duty on the stimulus package by failing to initiate the stimulus package bill as to who gets what. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said 11 million Nigerians are on the National Social Register, and have been receiving monthly stipends of N5,000 since 2016. Under the program, 2.6 million households are qualified to receive Conditional Cash Transfer payments and for the distribution of food items during the Coronavirus lockdown. 

The Federal Government is being run like a feudal administration with archaic system, primitive ideas, and ancient methods. For one thing, there’s no reliable census figures to make projections and economic plans. For another, no available data to ensure equitable distribution of resources and or emergency special programs like the stimulus package. In the absence of these two key planning indicators, the government relies on crude and non-transparent methods to distribute the stimulus package.

It was reported that the stimulus will be distributed among the poorest of the poor. According to Farouq, community based target was used to identify poor Nigerians. She said community leaders were asked to identify poor families in their various communities. This method is not transparent or reliable. It is obvious that the community leaders will register their families and friends and collect money from “outsiders” to be included in the register.

Billions of naira was shared within days without reaching the poorest of the poor. The important questions that beg for answers are: Who are the poorest of the poor in Nigeria? What were the criteria used by the Federal Government to identify and determine the poorest of the poor? What evidence to show that the poor got what we were told they received?

In a country where unemployment is off the roof, where citizens live on average of $1-$2 a day, where average life span is 45, where workers work for months and even years without being paid, where minimum wage is N30,000, where pensioners live as destitute, where 13 million school-age children roam the streets for food as scavengers, where majority live in the slums, where the country is the poverty capital of the world and the saddest place to live, where 99 per cent live on alms. With the exception of the one per cent rich, the rest of the country constitute the poorest of the poor.

Since 99.9 per cent of Nigerians constitute the poorest of the poor, it is fraudulent and wicked on the part of the government to discriminate among the poorest of the poor in the distribution of the stimulus package. In US, Canada, Britain, and other civilized nations, stimulus package was based on different methods. For example, in the US according to USA Today, here’s how the stimulus package is disbursed: “Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, says those who file joint tax returns will get up to $2,400.

“The payments will be sent via direct deposit to Americans who already have provided the Internal Revenue Service with their bank account information. For those who haven’t, the checks will be mailed. If you've already filed your 2019 taxes, the IRS will use those returns to determine your rebate. If not, your 2018 returns will be used to calculate your check.

“Individuals with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less will be eligible for up to $1,200 ($2,400 for joint tax returns) and $500 for each qualifying child.

“Those with little or no tax liability also will get $1,200 ($2,400 for joint returns). The payments will start to phase out for Americans who earn more than $75,000, or $150,000 for a joint return. The amount you receive will be decreased by five per cent of the amount your income exceeds $75,000. For example, a single person with an $85,000 salary would get $700 after subtracting 5% of $10,000, or $500.”

Over N21bn has been donated to the Federal Government by titans of industry and other public figures in Nigeria as their contribution to cushion the economic impact of Coronavirus. But why sending money to a corrupt government? After all, the money will end up in private pockets. Both the Federal Government and donors should have sent the money to individuals via their BVN.

Also, the N20,000 for each individual is too small to make a dent in the economic hardship faced by the poor. At least, nothing less than N100,000 should be a reasonable threshold.

Meanwhile, with pockets of protests by hungry and frustrated citizens popping up around the country due to the lockdown without food, money, water, and light, Buhari may be the guest of the very revolution he fears so much.