Almost all former Presidents, former Ministers and their acolytes are competing on the social media, adjudging their times to be the best in terms of developmental projects and the good of the people.
How do we measure our development, if poverty indices keep escalating?
How do we say we are doing well, when our educational, health and social infrastructures are in terrible shapes?
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, says, ‘one in seven global maternal deaths occur in Nigeria. That is more than 50,000 women dying per year in Nigeria.’ Yet about 95 per cent of deaths during childbirths are preventable.
The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) said in 2020 that 40% or 83 million Nigerians lived in poverty. It further estimated that the number of poor people will increase to 90 million, or 45% of the population, in 2022! For me this is like sitting atop a time bomb, accidents waiting to happen and should be very scary to rational minds.
If the NBS was created to run estimates and projections for planning purposes, how far have we taken them seriously in the past and now? By my layman’s reading of the projections, it means that the poverty of today, seemingly reflects a cummulation of the failures of yesterday and that of tomorrow will be the aggregations of the failures of today.
With the widening gap between the poor and the rich, are we really developing?
If yes, what are the measurements for real growths in Nigeria?
My heart bleeds for our nation the way we defend our present and past leaders at the face of escalating poverty, which we know could compound insecurity in Nigeria.
Please, can sociologists, economists and statisticians help me out?
I am at a loss.
Grace and peace!!!
