By Nnabugwu Chizoba
To many people, Poverty is
essentially a condition of human existence characterized by very low income,
resulting in very low consumption of food, clothing and shelter, including inadequate
or even nonexistent access to health care and educational facilities.
Little wonder then, that those who
live in conditions referred to as poverty (the poor) are often seen as those
who are severely short of income and so, are deprived of the consumption of the
wealth realized from income…
To say the least, poverty is
disempowerment or/and powerlessness of some human beings over the basic means
for ensuring their survival. It is not just tattered clothing and wretched
housing, lack of sanitation and ventilation. It is dehumanization, degradation
and permanent insecurity and instability in all forms of essential family and
community relations and obligations and even in the ability to perform
religious duties in the right manner.
As a complex and multi-dimensional
phenomenon, poverty goes beyond lack of income, improvement, development and
progress. It includes disorderliness in intellectual habits and thoughts,
disorderliness from acceptable norms and values, professional incompetence, which
very high propensity of people living in the Country are forced into, as victims, despite the vast array of natural endowments and favourable
climatic conditions and other opportunities for improvement.
By disempowering some people in a
society through maladministration, it disables that society and renders it
unstable and incapable of functioning in ways in which it can realize its
economic and political potentials. It is not just that the high level of
deprivation suffered by the economically poor reduces their usefulness as
consumers of goods and services produced by others, it also denies them the
exercise of their mental and manual capabilities as citizens who have social,
educational, cultural, legal, political and economic roles and
responsibilities, for they are severely crippled emotionally and
psychologically.
Already known to many people is the
fact that unemployment, poor labour remuneration, neglect of rural areas,
corruption, maladministration and others, are the cause(s) of poverty.
What many people may not have known
or given thought to, is that the above mentioned features are just merely the
by-products of poverty. To this end, those that perpetuate them are the real
poor, the poorest of the society. They are poor in mind! They are heavily
impoverished and disfigured in thought and are mangled and weak in their
capacity to control the self.
Poverty, as it is, is not a
condition which is to be alleviated with any positive ends in view. How can
malnutrition be alleviated? Is it by providing half-a-meal and preventing death
by starvation.
How do you alleviate malaria, Tuberculosis
(TB) and other preventable diseases? Is it by giving Asprin, Parasitamol or
Panadol and other drugs to deal with the symptoms so that the person in
question may die much more slowly?
Come to think of it, how do you
alleviate the human degradation caused by poverty? Is it by giving a quarter or
half of the person’s dignity?
Again, how would one alleviate the
poverty of the mind of a Man who rose to office only to squander the resources
meant to run the office and as a result, many people could not receive their
salaries? Is it by giving him/her a chieftaincy title instead of branding him/her
a thief?
Similarly, how do you alleviate the
poverty of the mind and warped mentality of both elected and appointed
political office holders who derive joy in embezzling public fund? Is it by allowing
him/her to defect to another political party and get elected or appointed to
another office under a new platform?
All these questions can go on and
on without any reasonable answer in place. I stand to be corrected!
I must posit here that, if we must
record any meaningful result in our pursuit of economic growth, there must be
solid home market. Each local, state and federal governments must wake up and
understand who the real ‘poor’ are.
As a way forward, this would
require that most of the capital generated at home are productively invested at
home. With this capital as the foundation, the human and natural resources we
have will be sufficiently utilized within a coherent and long term national
plan, which will have as one of its cardinal agenda, the eradication of poverty,
which by implication relates to the mentally poor… The real poor!
The poverty eradication as being
canvassed here, has no semblance with the alleviation approach, where mere
swapping of party membership is expected by many citizens to bring about the
much desired and cherished change in most political office holders and by
extension the Nigerian economy.
By my current thinking, I hold that,
instead of using capital accumulation as the key to growth and development,
more emphasis should be placed on qualitative human resource development of the
economically deprived poor, most of whom are in that state because of their
integrity and honesty.
Ignorance, no doubt breeds poverty
and disease and therefore limits the capacity of people to contribute
meaningfully to the process of growth and development, which in itself
encourages poverty. However, the poverty of the mind is the greatest challenge
of the Nigerian state. This is where our ignorance as a nation lies.
More attention therefore should be
given to the economically “deprived” poor rather than wasting time and energy
defending the activities of the mentally eroded poor.
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