The World Bank had estimated that there would be approximately 95.1 million people in Nigeria, but the country’s leaders generously increased that estimate to 133 million. The Multidimensional Poverty Index is predicated on a multivariate type of poverty assessment that identifies deprivations across health, education, living standards, work, and shocks.
This style of evaluation is the cornerstone of the index. It is unfortunate that Osibanjo chairs the National Committee on Poverty reduction, which has the obviously misleading and overly ambitious goal of plunging more than 100 million Nigerians deeper into poverty. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which is a government data and statistics center in Nigeria, the states of Sokoto, Bayelsa, Gombe, Jigawa, and Plateau are the poorest in 2022. Someone will say that one of the reasons we surpassed the World Bank forecast is because of the conflict in Ukraine.
It’s hard to believe that Nigeria is not a poor country given how many people there are who go hungry every day. There is a large quantity of human capital deposits that have not been exploited properly or at all. According to one report, if the five richest men in Nigeria pooled their resources together, they would have enough money to put an end to the prevalent problem of poverty. The public treasures in Nigeria have been mismanaged by the Nigerian government at all levels, with as much as 20 trillion USD stolen between 1960 and 2005, which is much more than the GDP of the United States in 2012. (18 trillion USD)
It is not true that Nigeria is a poor country because it is lacking in anything. The mismanagement, misallocation, and misuse of the combined fortunes of the nation by our leaders and other self-serving political elites is a major contributor to the widespread poverty in the land.
Negative outcomes such as unemployment, insecurity, banditry, terrorism, etc., are predictable results of such behavior. At 33.3%, Nigeria’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the world. As the election approaches, Nigerians will have the opportunity to reflect on the state of the country and the circumstances that have contributed to the current crisis, and to express their opposition to ineffective and corrupt leadership.
