It is necessary to draw the public’s attention to an unfair and untrue statement made by Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in excuse of the damning Brookings Institute update on Nigeria’s rise to the nation with the most extremely poor in the world.
In a keynote address titled,“Strengthening Legislative Institutional: Panacea For Enduring Democracy (Stronger States, Dealing With Poverty),” delivered Friday June 30th by at the 3Rd anniversary of The 8Th Assembly of the Lagos State House of Assembly Titled, “Strengthening Legislative Institutional: Panacea For Enduring Democracy (Stronger States, Dealing With Poverty),” VP Osinbajo made the claim quoted,
“…especially credit to the smallest businesses, the one table trader, the bread or plantain seller or the MA Shai. This is the largest segment of our working population; their inventory is no more than N5000 – N10,000. They are an important part of the value chain of most goods, they sell the single sachets of soap, sugar, and spices to the largest numbers of our people. But they are forgotten and ignored in economic plans and budgets, and considered too unwieldy and risky for micro credit loans.
One of the reasons why our poverty figures are high, is because of our large informal sector, consisting of the petty traders whose income does not fit into the extreme poverty bracket, but are counted in the number because there is no way of tracking them or their income.” Read full address here: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/06/1013353/
Osinbajo’s claim was that the income of petty traders were included in reports like the Brookings one, not because they earned less than the standard cutoff for being regarded “extremely poor” but because their income was not measured.
This is an untruth.
The Brookings institute report categorized the extremely poor as those who earn less than $1.90 per day, based on the “International Poverty Line.” This at the currency conversion rate equals N684/day. Data was obtained from “World Poverty Clock,” http://www.worldpoverty.io/ a web tool of “World Data Lab” http://www.worlddata.io/.
CNN highlighted this value as quoted,
“Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty, with an estimated 87 million Nigerians, or around half of the country’s population, thought to be living on less than $1.90 a day.” Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/26/africa/nigeria-overtakes-india-extreme-poverty-intl/index.html
How many petty traders in Nigeria make a net profit of N684 per day and N20,000 per month?
The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics confirms these numbers of destitute Nigerians as released in the report.
The affluent Vice President is either so far distanced from the suffering on the streets or he is being intentionally manipulative to defend the current unbearable hardship Nigeria’s failed governments have sentenced the masses to. We on the streets know the reality.
The first step in addressing a situation is recognizing it. We beg the Buhari administration to recognize the level of deadly hardship the masses are facing. This recognition of the reality could be aided if for instance the presidency invites ordinary masses to Aso rock occasions like the Ramadan breakfasts and the like, and not only the wealthy cabal.
At the current rate of 6 new destitute per minute, 3.2 million Nigerians will add on the massive number of 87 million earning less than N684 per day this year. This is intolerable. This is a crime against humanity…most especially in a nation where government policies like the ongoing fuel and Emefiele CBN FOREX subsidies create and sustain the world’s richest black men and women.
Dr. Perry Brimah, Whatsapp Tel: +234-903-420-3031; +1-929-427-5305; @CabalMustGo; @EveryNigerian