The Problems Of Extreme Poverty In The Modern World Of Nigeria -By Ohalete Chisom Laura

Poverty creates scores of problems in the society; that is a fact that many people living in various parts of the world identify with. 

But what is poverty? Poverty can be defined as lack of basic things including, money, shelter, food and water, education, health, and clothing, among others. 

Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations [UN] as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation, facilities; health, shelter, education and information”. The poverty statistics of Nigeria shows that the overall 12.9 percent of the global population in extreme poverty were found in Nigeria as of 2022 63% Of persons living within Nigeria [133 million people] are multidimensional poor. The National [MPL] is 0.27, indicating that people people in Nigeria experience just over one quarter of all possible deprivation, About 84 million Nigeria’s wrangle in extreme poverty, surviving below $1.9 per day according to the National Bureau Of Statistics [NBS].

WHY IS NIGERIA”S POVERTY RATE SO HIGH?

There are several issues involved with bad governance in Nigeria, use of wrong politics adaptation to wrong policies and implementation of those wrong policies. In any case, it is clear that Nigeria corruption has increased poverty and inequality as well as contributed to high crime rates according to Mehatma Gandhr “ poverty is the poorest form of violence”.

Poverty has lead to other problems like poor literacy, unemployment, malnutrition etc . A poor person is therefore remains unemployed. An unemployed person is not able to buy enough and nutritious food for his family and their health decline. A wake person lacks the energy requires for the job. A jobless person remains poor only thus we can say that poverty is the root cause of other problems.

PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 

Poverty can create many problems and challenges in life, with most of inadequacy. To start with, poverty causes the lack of material or basic needs as mentioned above.

Living In shanties, lack of or inadequate access of food and water, lack of accessibility to health facilities, education facilities, and nutrition services, are all characteristics that defined poverty, thus, poverty comes with unpleasant consequences, which range from death, committing crimes, malnutrition, exposure to harsh weather conditions, Ignorance among others.

To start with, lack of or inadequate access to food and water is one of the characteristics of poverty, and it makes people end up deducing means of survival, for instance; skipping meals talking food and water in much smaller quantities, eating unbalanced diets and so much more. 

This condition often leads to health related problems, malnutrition, and even death. Lack of access to health facilities by sick people or expected mother could lead to facilities, which could have other wish been prevented. Most expectant woman especially in poverty stricken areas deliver at home to inaccessibility and unaffordable health service, and this often leads to death.

Indulging in crime has more often than not been related to poverty. It is common to find a thief insinuating to have stolen because of lack of basic needs. A thief might strangle someone who is in extreme measures such as committing suicide when they can no longer cope with their status! 

HOW POVERTY IS MEASURED 

For measuring poverty United Nations have derived two measures of poverty which is Absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is used to measure poverty in developed countries like the USA in absolute poverty. A line based on minimum level of income has been created and is called a poverty line. If par day income of a family is below this level then it is poor or below the poverty line. If per day income of a family is above this level then it is non-poor or above the poverty line. In Nigeria, considering the poverty threshold at 1.90 US dollars a day within the studies time frame, the share mainly rose over all, the number of people living in extreme poverty in Africa was estimated to reach 422 million in 2025.

CAUSE OF POVERTY 

According to the noble price winner South Africa leader, Nelson Mandela -“poverty is not natural, it is man made”-

The above statement is true as the cause of poverty but the most important is population rising, population is putting the burden on the resources and budget of countries. Governments are finding difficult to provide food, shelter and employment to the rising population. The other courses are lack of education, war, natural disasters, lack of employment, lack of infrastructure, political instability, etc. 

For instance- lack of employment opportunities makes a person jobless and he is not able to earn enough to fulfill the basis necessities of his family and becomes poor. Lack of education compels a person for less paying jobs and it makes him poorer. Lack of infrastructure means there are no industries, banks etc In a country resulting in lack of employment opportunities Natural disasters like flood, earthquakes also contributed to poverty in some countries, especially Africa countries like Somalia, a long period of civil war has made poverty widespread. 

This is because all the resources and money is being spent in war instead of public welfare. Countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc are prone to natural disaster like cyclone etc these distances occur every year causing poverty to rise.

EFFECTS OF POVERTY 

Poverty effects the life of a poor family. A poor person is not able to take proper food and nutrition and his capacity to work reduces. Reduced capacity to work further reduces his income, making him poorer. Children from poor families never get proper school and proper nutrition they have to work to support their family and this destroys their children. Some of them may also involve in crimes like theft, murder, robbery, etc. A poor person remains uneducated and is forced to live under unhygienic conditions in slums. There are no proper sanitation and drinking water facilities in the slums and he falls ill often and his health deteriorates. A poor person generally dies an early death. So all social evils are related to poverty.

BENEFITS OF POVERTY 

There are also some good sides of poverty maybe someone would ask, what good thing could really come out of poverty? For one, it’s common to poor people to develop good interpersonal relations among themselves. Those are virtues that could be said because they can not survive independently. 

People living in poverty develop a culture of borrowing which forces them to be humble, courageous and easily mingle; values that are typical within the rich people circles. Even if developed because of their poverty status, they add up to the good values that are much needed in a society. Although a bit selfish, if everyone in the society lies to be rich, then very important links would be cut.

For instance, there would be no casual laborers, no cleaners, no charity homes, and limited social interactions. It is also perceived, nature that poverty makes people work hard in various sectors seeking improvement their lifestyle. It’s often found that poor people work the hardest in school, work places and even in sports and music industry, because they don’t have what they desire in life.

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES TO REMOVE POVERTY 

The government of Nigeria also took several measures to eradicate poverty from Nigeria some of them are creating employment opportunities, controlling population etc . In Nigeria, about 60% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its living hoods. Government has taken certain measures to promote agriculture in Nigeria. The government constructed certain dams and canals in our country to provide easy ability of water for irrigation in cities. The government is promoting industrialization to create more jobs.

Poverty is a social evil, we can also contribute to control it. For example we can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child or we can unitize our free time by teaching poor students.

Remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry

OHALETE LAURA CHISOM