Nigeria: Poverty Amid Stupendous Wealth

27 January 2025

All the stakeholders should do more to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor

Once again, the reality of the Nigerian condition has been brought home by the 2024 report by Oxfam, an international confederation of NGOs working with partners in over 90 countries to end the injustices that cause poverty. The combined wealth of just four Nigerian billionaires, totalling $23.7 billion (about N35 trillion), according to the report, could cover Lagos city in ₦500 notes. Titled, "Takers Not Makers," the report reveals that there were 2,769 billionaires worldwide in 2024, an increase of 204 over the previous year, adding that at least four new billionaires were "minted" every week, and three-fifths of their wealth came from inheritance, monopoly power or "crony connections."

Highlighting the inequality in Nigeria, the Oxfam Country Director, John Makina, said authorities in our country must address social injustices and invest in essential services to lift millions out of poverty. "Nigeria's wealth gap is a moral and social crisis. While a few individuals amass immense wealth, over 133 million Nigerians face hunger daily. This extreme inequality is largely unearned, built on inheritance, monopolies, and unfair advantages," said Makina. "We must act now to create a fairer system--by taxing the richest, addressing injustices, and investing in services that lift millions out of poverty."

To be fair, inequalities in the distribution of opportunities is not peculiar to Nigeria. According to Oxfam, economic rewards are "increasingly concentrated" at the top. However, the situation in our country is becoming very desperate for most Nigerians despite the denial by some delusional politicians. In the country today, many basic services such as education, health and infrastructure are decrepit or in short supply, while a huge demographic crisis is looming.

The consequences of this situation are not only for the victims but also those who feed fat at the expense of the poor in both the public and private sectors. The Oxfam report should therefore be a wake-up call not only for the authorities in Nigeria at a period the plight of the under-privileged is steadily worsening, but also for all critical stakeholders, including in the private sector. Indeed, the more worrisome aspect of the Nigerian condition is that poverty goes beyond shortages of food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine the quality of life. It is inclusive of educational attainment and gender inequality.

Today, millions of citizens can hardly eat a good meal a day. Millions are jobless while many of the employed people are not paid living wages and therefore hardly leave any room for savings. Others get their daily living from the streets. But the main problem has been in the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Going by the Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index, which ranks governments based on what they are doing to tackle this gap, Nigeria fares badly because its social spending (on health, education and social protection) is abysmally low. The solution to the problem can therefore not be in some tokenist programmes that are neither well thought-out nor enduring. The federal government and authorities in the 36 states must muster the political will to enact policies that will ensure a fair distribution of economic opportunities among all the citizens, regardless of status.

What the totality of the foregoing suggests is that the problems of unemployment, poverty, inequality, decayed infrastructure, insecurity and serious challenges in social services like education and health are already telling. Therefore, the challenge of the moment is for the government, at all levels, to begin to deliver targeted and result-oriented policies that would ensure not only that our potential is maximised but also that the resultant prosperity is shared.

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