₦airaland Forum

A t least 86 million people live in extreme poverty in
Nigeria. The country’s richest man, Aliko Dangote , is
said to earn 8,000 times more each day than a poor
compatriot would spend on their basic needs in a year.
“Income inequality is one of Nigeria’s most serious but least
talked about challenges,” says Matthew Page , formerly the
US intelligence community’s leading expert on Africa’s biggest
economy. “It is this disparity between rich and poor, more
than poverty itself, that generates anti-government sentiment
and could fuel civil unrest down the road.”
Page’s analysis is backed up by a new global index , produced
by Oxfam and Development Finance International, which
puts Nigeria outright last in a list of 152 countries ranked by
their “commitment to reducing inequality”. Nigeria’s social
spending (on health, education and social protection) is,
according to the report, “shamefully low” and “reflected in
very poor social outcomes for its citizens”.
The billionaire Dangote – also Africa’s richest man – is a 60-
year-old Nigerian cement tycoon and philanthropist. His main
residence in Lagos is on Banana Island, the country’s most
expensive residential estate and a hub for the super-rich.
“People always assume that everyone
who works in Banana Island earns a
lot of money – but it’s not true,” says
David Obi, who has worked among the
millionaires and billionaires of this
exclusive manmade island (built in the
shape of a banana) since 2006.
“The rich do not pay you well but they
make you work endlessly,” he says. “I once worked with a
rich man where, after I’d finished my work, the family would
call me back at one or 2am to come and serve the boss. Yet
at the end of the month, they would not pay me. I had to
leave because I was owed my salary for several months.”
Obi resides in a part of this gated community where workers
are not allowed to stay with their families. “While the rich
stay in their mansions, those who work for them will be
given a very small space in the boys’ quarters – sometimes
two or three workers are made to share one small room.
“The rich don’t want the poor to make progress,” he
concludes. “If you are a poor man working for them, they
prefer that you stay poor for the rest of your life. They think
if they enhance your life and you become rich, you may
refuse to work for them again. They want only them and
their families to be rich forever.”
A ‘scary level of wealth’
Noel Anago is a 32-year-old chef who cooks for rich clientele
at a variety of social events in Lagos. “I am often surprised at
the displays of wealth,” he says. “I see very rich
businessmen, former presidents, top politicians and
governors, many with police escorts and people from the
state security service. I am amazed by the expensive dresses,
the shoes and the high-quality bags the women carry. They
are worth thousands of dollars.”
Between 2004 and 2010, inequality in Nigeria significantly
worsened, according to Oxfam , with the upper class
benefiting from dubious tax wavers and legislators receiving
earnings that were among the highest in the world.
The number of people living in poverty, meanwhile, increased
from 69 million in 2004 to 112 million in 2010, despite an
average economic growth of more than 7%. In the same
period, the number of millionaires in Nigeria increased by
44%.
“The overlap between political and economic power in
Nigeria is near total,” says Page. “Politicians often use
businesses to siphon money from state coffers, and many
business moguls have grown rich on the back of close
relationships with top officials, juicy government contracts, or
protectionist policies. Nigeria resembles the United States in
this way – but with less transparency and minimal
independent scrutiny of what are often conflicts of interest.”
In 2014, a report by the former
minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo
Iweala, found the Nigerian government
had lost approximately 800bn naira
(£1.9bn) to tax wavers and concessions
to businesses and corporations between
2011 and 2013. The report concluded
these wavers led to no measurable benefit for the Nigerian
economy.
“Sometimes you are scared by the level of wealth here,”
Anago says. “Inequality has an impact on my life: I am
working hard just to survive, whereas the rich have
everything. They can afford to go to hospitals abroad, while
many poor people remain at home with ill-health until the
situation gets out of hand. When you don’t have money to
even feed, you can’t think of your health – you only think of
how to feed the stomach.”
Nigeria has now slipped into its longest recession for more
than 25 years, and is grappling with one of the worst
humanitarian crises in the world – heightened by Boko
Haram’s violent insurgency . More than 4.7 million people are
facing food insecurity in the region, according to the UN,
while 49% of young people are either unemployed or under-
employed in insufficient or part-time work.
Yet according to Nonso Obikili, a Nigerian-based economist,
public debate about inequality has decreased in recent years.
“In times of economic growth under the last government,
there was more of a focus on ‘inclusive growth’ – but even
then, nothing significant was done to address it.
“Now there is a recession, the focus of the country is on
returning to growth,” he says. “The current government have
improved the situation in terms of corruption, but the
changes have not been systemic – and that is a problem.”
A high-profile anti-corruption campaign – a key pledge in the
election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 – has
attempted to stem the country’s historic levels of corruption.
Several properties, assets and state funds have since been
seized and recovered, and investigations continue.
The rich prefer that you stay poor for the rest
of your life
David Obi
Talk to both Anago and Obi, however, and they are dubious
that much has changed. “Corruption is responsible for
inequality,” says Obi. “This country has a lot of resources
and if properly managed, there would be no poverty. But
people are taking all the country’s resources for themselves
and their families.”
According to Anago, “Corruption is the number one factor
that brings about the gap between the rich and poor in
Nigeria. Many of the rich became extremely rich due to
corruption.”
He offers a bleak example of the difference between rich and
poor here. “As a poor man, you can’t get justice in Nigeria.
For example, when the police arrest the poor, they ask them
to bring money to bail themselves. If you don’t have the
money, they will detain you.
“It happened recently to one of my cousins: the police
arrested him and demanded 45,000 naira (£109). We all had
to come together to contribute the money, and even beg the
police to reduce the amount. Money matters a lot with the
justice system, because money talks when it comes to getting
justice in Nigeria.”


http://fawoleblog..co.ke/2017/07/nigeria-country-that-doesn-care-about.html?m=1

Why cannot you arrange this post very well...?

dlondonbadboy:
Why cannot you arrange this post very well...?

dlondonbadboy:
Why cannot you arrange this post very well...?

Are you speaking German
I Dont know why your owner released you out of your cage