Alarming poverty and Dangote’s lamentations

Recently, Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote called attention to rising unemployment and poverty among Nigerians. In fact, he lamented that more than 100 million Nigerians out of a population of 187 million are wallowing in poverty. Addressing participants at the Executive Course No. 38,2016 at the National Institute for Policy & Strategic Studies (NIPPS) Kuru, Jos, the renowned business mogul described the situation as shameful and unacceptable, in view of the country’s abundant resources.  “It is a curious paradox that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, and biggest economy also has one of the highest levels of poverty on the continent”, he said.
Definitely, we totally agree with Alhaji Dangote on his observation and have had cause on many occasions to call on the authorities to tame the monster of unemployment, if Nigeria is to have a secure future.
According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, the country’s unemployment rate was 12.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, up from 10.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015, reaching the highest since December 2001.

It is no more news that more than 80 percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day. Paradoxically, while the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown over the years, Nigeria still ranks among the poorest nations in the world.

Economic and development experts have attributed this anomaly to the uneven distribution of wealth brought about by a dysfunctional economic and social system. Invariably, as GDP grows, the rich continue getting richer and the poor poorer. The increasing unemployment and poverty in the country is the result of poor governance, which is manifested in the corrupt, inept political leadership and weak civil institutions to dilapidated infrastructure, insecurity and mass poverty in the midst of opulence.
The consequence of such marginal state of existence is the increasing crime and violence across the country, as most of the unemployed resort to crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom, Internet fraud and other forms of fraudulent activities to survive. It is a fact that poverty and economic stratification has contributed immensely to the upsurge of violence with serious economic costs. Unfortunately, as unemployment continues to rise, there is palpable resentment among the poor who feel neglected and this in turn has led to the expression of anger in extreme ethnocentric behaviour, xenophobia and constant insurrection against the government.
The problem of unemployment and poverty has become a ‘Gordian Knot’ that has defied every solution by successive administrations. Any Nigerian would tell you that the greatest problem facing the country is the satanic level of unemployment among the working population. There is also consensus on the urgent need to put these jobless millions to work if the country is to record any technological and economic progress.

We cannot allow unemployment in the land to continue to increase every year without making jobs creation a major job of governments at all levels. It would be disastrous for a country that has been projected to have the third largest population in the world by 2050.
Our entire society is in danger of destruction unless we pay attention to this huge segment of our young and jobless global population.