POVERTY SYNDROME IN NIGERIA-WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE CAUSES?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by AMADI CHIOMA CITY on
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The issue of Poverty in Nigeria is so complex and myriad that one may consider it as equal to the whole problem of Nigeria. The worst part of the case is that, the rich grows richer and the poor grows poorer that is “poverty for majority and wealth for minority”
The causes of poverty as said earlier are myriad: political corruption mismanagement, illiteracy, crime, poor economy, disguised faith and in equitable distribution of resources, etcetera.
Political Corruption and mismanagement is mostly associated with the so called leaders otherwise best addressed as-RULERS including church and company’s leaders who use the avenue of being in power to siphon public wealth/funds to their pocket as if it is a family inheritance. Therefore, It is among the populace that poverty is breed.
Illiteracy is the worst disease to manage in the family, church, community, state and the nation at large. I want to correct one impression here; going to school does not automatically makes one literate and vise via. A man might be educated without being informed, and that’s makes him deformed and difficult to be managed. Such one is addressed as “educated illiterate” An illiterate can decide to vote in a wrong person into power with expectation of one morsel of food ;this reminds me of a character in the Greatest book (Bible)-Esau who out of lack of foresight and knowledge of what birth right entails decided to sell his birthright to his twin brother.
When one is educated, he faces issues sequentially, think and reason rationally before accepting offers from so highly corrupt-minded politicians.
To be contd.
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Permalink Reply by obi amaefule on
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poverty in this country is simply put, is caused by the looting, fraud perpetrated by the officials whether elected or appointed. Also by the the contractors we have this country, and these have spread like wild fire that almost everybody with little opportunity want to loot the treasury in a bid to share in the so called national cake.
this country can afford to pay unemployment benefit to our numerous unemployed graduates, provide avenue for the unskilled to be trained by providing the fund directly to training centres to cover their training fees as a loan which will be deductible directly 4rm there wages whenever they gain employment. this definitely will reduce the level of poverty in this country. but these individuals in government are rather focused on cleaning the treasury.
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Permalink Reply by shehu balogun on
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You are right in defining illiteracy as the enabler to underdevelopment in Nigeria. Being educated with all the titles under the planet does not make someone learned. Education allows one to see things in a different light. It facilitates logical thinking. Not all educated person can think logically. Until Nigeria educated people start to think logically, using their thought process in the right manner, nothing will change. Ethnicity or tribalism is the ills of illiterate forefathers. United we stand. We now live in a global world. Obama is now the president of USA. Regardless of where you come from, we all share the same planet earth. These entire primitive thought that is still holding the country down needs to be a thing of the past. You need everyone regardless of where they come from, to be working in the same direction for the benefit for all Nigerians. North, South, East, West is irrelevant. What is relevant is we are all Nigerians. Everyone has something to bring to the table. It is the thieves amongst us that use the fear of the unknown to loot public funds. They use tribal and ethnic divisions. Please wake up from your slumber and start thinking as Nigerians. The rest of the world is working to develop their nations and their people while you carry on looting the resources. You have people with Phd that have never utilised their knowledge in any operational functions. i.e an engineer that have never used a screw driver. What is the point of studying engineering if you have no passion to make a difference? Why do you need a title in front of your name if you are an engineer? I am an IT consultant I do not need titles preceding my name to be important. What is important to me is what impact I make to my company and the people of England via my knowledge. Please wake up, cos the Nation called Nigeria is endowed with both Natural and Human resources. What it lacks is quality leadership across all areas. Good management will realign the fortunes of Nigeria. Please use your vote wisely and do not vote for all these recycled thieves parading as leaders cos they are not. Create the enabler by saying no to thieves. By accepting few grand now and selling your children’s future is not the way forward. They are using your collective wealth to pay you few grand and looting your future generations hope.
AMADI CHIOMA CITY said:The issue of Poverty in Nigeria is so complex and myriad that one may consider it as equal to the whole problem of Nigeria. The worst part of the case is that, the rich grows richer and the poor grows poorer that is “poverty for majority and wealth for minority”
The causes of poverty as said earlier are myriad: political corruption mismanagement, illiteracy, crime, poor economy, disguised faith and in equitable distribution of resources, etcetera.
Political Corruption and mismanagement is mostly associated with the so called leaders otherwise best addressed as-RULERS including church and company’s leaders who use the avenue of being in power to siphon public wealth/funds to their pocket as if it is a family inheritance. Therefore, It is among the populace that poverty is breed.
Illiteracy is the worst disease to manage in the family, church, community, state and the nation at large. I want to correct one impression here; going to school does not automatically makes one literate and vise via. A man might be educated without being informed, and that’s makes him deformed and difficult to be managed. Such one is addressed as “educated illiterate” An illiterate can decide to vote in a wrong person into power with expectation of one morsel of food ;this reminds me of a character in the Greatest book (Bible)-Esau who out of lack of foresight and knowledge of what birth right entails decided to sell his birthright to his twin brother.
When one is educated, he faces issues sequentially, think and reason rationally before accepting offers from so highly corrupt-minded politicians.
To be contd.
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Permalink Reply by Charles Ugochukwu Okere on
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Apart from corruption and illiteracy, another major cause of poverty is laziness. There are a lot folks up there who are not interested in working at all yet they want to enjoy the best of life. Poverty will be erradicated when our economy is properly managed, when every one benefits from the nation's God given wealth; when corruption is given a back seat in our national life; when illiteracy is recognized as causative agent of poverty and handled appropriately and when our youths see hard work as a virtue.
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Permalink Reply by Raymond paul on
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When one is educated, he faces issues sequentially, think and reason rationally before accepting offers from so highly corrupt-minded politicians..........(quoted by amadi chioma)
in respect to this quote my dear, there more than just been educated. been educated doesn't gives ability of thinking and reasoning rationally. it's all about your mind set been enable to be seriously principled and ability to act on your stand. today, even the so called educated once are more involved in corruption. all these stories about poverty sydrome in nigeria has been a long issue which today remains without any remedies but could be depending on the govt's mind set for the economy and it's people.
at time i think when i a corrupt individual is caught he/she should be killed instantly. that's what some country do. at least puting or giving a striaght lesson to others with such idea.
anyway it's a nice topic.
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There needs to be a deterrent to corruption. Where you have strong enforceable laws, people especially Nigerians will not break the law. Yes you will have those lawbreakers regardless, but with good punishment they are well aware of the consequences. I am all for using the same legislation as China for corrupt politicians and civil servants and their cronies. Also all their ill gotten gains should be confisticated before been sent to the gallows. In order to enforce this we need credible institutions that are not under the thumb of these cabals.
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Permalink Reply by oguntola oluseun ibukun on
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There is no one cause or determinant of poverty. On the contrary, combination of several complex factors contribute to poverty. They include low or negative economic growth, inappropriate macroeconomic policies, deficiencies in the labour market resulting in limited job growth, low productivity and low wages in the informal sector, and a lag in
human resource development. Other factors which have contributed to a decline in living standards and are structural causes or determinants of poverty include increase in crime and violence, environmental degradation, retrenchment of workers, a fall in the real value of safety nets, and changes in family structures. These are examined below: Low economic growth performance: Growth of the economy is a must for poverty reduction. In developing countries such as Nigeria growth that is employment generating and with export base is desirable in order to achieve growth that is poverty reducing with equity. Although the economic performance of countries in the World has generally been highly volatile since the early 1980s, on the whole, growth rates have been low or negative, with overall declines in several countries. This is due in part to external shocks such as adverse changes in several country’s terms of trade, changes in global demand for exports and changes in global interest rates on developing countries external debt. All these are probably responsible for the increase in poverty level in various countries of the world. Extensive evidence links the importance of economic growth to poverty reduction (see World Bank 1990). For example, in Indonesia and Thailand poverty was reduced by between 30 and 40 percent during a twenty-year period in which annual growth rates were approximately 3 percent (investments in the social sectors also contributed). Accordingly, of a sample of countries, those that reduced poverty the least (for example, India and Sri Lanka) had growth rates of less than 1 percent. Growth can reduce poverty through rising employment, increased labour productivity and higher real wages it generates.
Macroeconomic shocks and policy failure:- This has been a major cause of poverty in several countries of the world. As many economies in the world faced macroeconomic disequilibrium, mostly in the balance of payments due to expansive aggregate demand policies, terms-of-trade shocks, and natural disasters, it become necessary to undertake major policy reforms. In the process such economies became vulnerable to poverty. Macro-economic shocks and policy failure account for poverty largely because they constrain the poor from using their greatest asset “labour”. Also, monetary policies that adversely affect cost and access to credit by the poor, fiscal policy which results in retrenchment, lay-off and factor Substitution; exchange rate policy which raises the
domestic cost of production in an import dependent production system will affect the
poor negatively. However, an exchange rate policy which boosts exports particularly
those in which the poor are predominantly engaged (for example agriculture) will help
reduce poverty. The urban poor, as a result of policy failure, are vulnerable to job losses
resulting from job-cut-backs in the public sectors or from the decline of industries
adversely affected by shifts in relative prices. They also lose from the removal of food
subsidies and other welfare packages. Further, devaluation produce both negative and
positive effects on equity and poverty incidence. On the negative side higher production
costs of import, especially in import dependent economy usually result in declining
capacity utilization rate in manufacturing and lay –off and retrenchment in the private
sector all worsening poverty.
Labour markets deficiencies: The poor’s most abundant resource is their labour, a
verilel labour market is important to reducing poverty and income inequality. In most
countries of the world the majority of poor households participate in the labour market in
one way or another, and thus poverty is a problem of low wages (in the informal sector),
low labour returns to rural self-employment activities, underemployment, and in some
cases, protracted unemployment. These problems are affected in different ways by
deficiencies in labour market. The majority of the labour force work as paid employees
in the private informal sector, followed by employees in the public sector. When there is
deficiencies in labour market, the poor are affected by limited job growth and absorption
capacity in the formal sector. Also, relatively high labour costs in the formal sector that
lead to over expansion of a low-productivity informal sector, thus putting downward
pressure on wages in the informal sector (where many of the poor work), and limited
opportunities for unskilled youth to acquire job training and skills can perpetuate a cycle
of poverty.Migration: Migration rates do reduce poverty especially when the majority of
individuals who migrate are skilled workers. On the other hand, individuals who
emigrate vacate jobs in labour markets. Thus, migration drains on skills. It reduces the
pace of economic growth and thus slows the process of overall job creation and affects
the long-run development potential in a country.
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Permalink Reply by Hon. Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo on
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To me, poverty can be self-induced or circumstantial. In the first categorization, the victim of poverty has done very little or nothing in his life to confront social and economic challenges with a view to securing a tangible breakthrough in life. The person starts to find faults to substantiate or justify why-he/she is in the sorry-state. Such a person is very look warm within his or friends-hood to take actions or programs that will generate long-termed returns. They doubt strategic game-plans. They are also too spiritual in their rationalization.
The other categorization is a man or woman who is handicapped at birth either by being physically challenged or he is psychologically challenged by being born into a family referred to as outcast. There is nothing such a person will articulate or rationalize that people will view as reasonable or appreciable. Another example of circumstantialized poverty are people who are unexpectedly retrenched or victimized in his/her place of work to such extent that judicial redress is not forthcoming. When a couple works in the same establishment having graduated from school, just at the stage of hoping to be promoted so that they can earn higher pay or privileges and they were unjustly terminated or sacked; at a time that they were yet to have secured some savings enough to kick-start another business, poverty is sure to embrace them.
That's my little view.
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