La literatura infantil

Poverty is the scarcity or the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. It is a multifaceted concept, which may include social, economic,

134

and political elements. Extreme poverty refers to the complete lack of the means necessary to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

According to United Nations, poverty is the inability of having choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one's food or a job to earn one's living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.

Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one's life (World Bank, 2015).

135

The 2007 United Nations Human Development Index ranks Nigeria 158 out of 177 countries; this is a significant decrease in its human development rank of 151 in 2004. About 64 per cent of households in Nigeria consider themselves to be poor while 32 per cent of households say their economic situation had worsened over a period of one year. Although National statistics report that the trend in poverty is on the decline, it is painstakingly sluggish and progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is slow (Opejobi, 2016). Poverty still remains one of the most critical challenges facing the country and population growth rates have meant a steady increase in the number of poor.

Life expectancy remains low and is estimated to have decreased from 47 years in 1990 to 44 years in 2005.

For Nwokoye (2017), there is an interesting rate of poverty in Nigeria with the extremely poor getting poorer. She categorized Nigerian living standard into none, moderate and extremely poor. According to her,

The year 2004 showed a decline in relative poverty within the country with an increase in the percentage of the none-poor from 34.4% to 43.3% while the percentage of the population which are moderately and extremely poor declined from 36.3% to 32% and from 29.3% to 22.3% respectively. But the 2010 data showed

136

deteriorations in the profile with a reduction in the proportion of the none-poor and increase in the proportion of the extremely poor. (p.

13).

Figure 1 gave credence to the above view of Nwokoye (2017).

Figure 1: relative Poverty in Nigeria; None, moderate and Extremely poor (1980-2010)

Source: Nwokoye (2017)

Figure 1 shows that there is relative decline in the percentage of extremely poor in 1980, 1985 and 1992 and also the percentage of none poor in the years mentioned. According to Nwokoye (2017), the harmonized Nigerian Living Standard Survey for 2010 as reported by National Bureau of

0 20 40 60 80

1980 1985 1992 1996 2004 2010

Extremely poor Moderately poor None poor

137

Statistics, put the poverty rate at 60% out of which 38.7% were extremely poor.

Human poverty is on the rise in Nigeria with over 80 million or 64% of her population living below poverty line. The situation has not changed over the decades, but is increasing. Poverty and hunger have remained high in rural areas, remote communities and among female –headed households and these cut across the six geo-political zones, with prevalence ranging from approximately 46.9 percent in the South West to 74.3 percent in North West and North East (United Nations, 2016). In Nigeria, 37% of children under five years old were stunted, 18 percent wasted, 29% underweight and overall, only 10% of children aged 6-23 months are fed appropriately based on recommended infant and young children feeding practices. This created poverty, helplessness, despair and easy target for crime and terrorism. Over 10 million children of school age are out of schools with no knowledge and skills (NBS). Figure 2 shows the poverty profile of the six geo-political zones.

Figure 2: Nigeria‘s Poverty Profile (2010) by Geographical Zones

138

National Bureau of Statistics (2010).

From the data as shown on Figure 2 above, the poverty profile across the six geo-political zones of the country clearly indicated that the north- west zone has the highest poverty population of 71.4 percent while the south west has the least of 49.8 percent.

The poverty rate in Nigeria will continue to be on the high side as long as Nigerians, especially the political and ruling class continue to neglect Weber‘s principle which said that all employees are selected on the basis of technical skills and competences, which have been acquired through training, education and experience. In Nigeria, gone are the days when work is divided on the basis of specialisation. Otherwise what is a medical doctor

139

who is supposed to work towards improving the health status of Nigerians doing in the ministry of labour and employment, whereas Nigeria has many specialists in policy making and implementation? Today, it is not uncommon to see successful businessmen abandoning their business only to become legislators. Such uneducated and unspecialized legislators can at best be

‗sitting‘ and ‗dumb‘ legislators and such attitude only increases the rate of poverty in Nigeria.