Tag: Poor

  • 133m Nigerians Living In Poverty – FG

    133m Nigerians Living In Poverty – FG

    The Federal Government, through the National Bureau of Statistics, on Thursday said 130 million Nigerians are poor.

    In its 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index Survey released in Abuja on Thursday, the NBS said the figure represents 63 per cent of the nation’s population.

    It added that the poverty index is mostly experienced in rural areas especially in the north with women and children being the most affected.

    Reports gathered that the survey was conducted by the NBS, the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

    It was gathered that the measure used to calculate the figure was based on Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) with five components of health, living standard, education, security, and unemployment.

    According to the survey, over 50 per cent of children across the country are affected by poverty.

    In his remarks, the Statistician-General of the Federation, Mr Adeyemi Adeniran, noted that 56,610 households were surveyed and areas such as health, education, living standards, food security, water reliability, underemployment, security shocks, and school attendance were considered.

    While the multidimensional poverty index stood at 27 per cent in Ondo State, the figure is estimated at 90 percent in Sokoto state.

    Details later….

  • Poor, vulnerable hopelessly suffer in US: Global Times editorial

    Poor, vulnerable hopelessly suffer in US: Global Times editorial

    The US has just gone through a chaotic weekend, with large-scale violent protests sweeping
    across many cities. The historic St. John’s Church, 300 meters away from the White House, was
    one fire, and the White House was also harassed and threatened by demonstrators, both of which
    are landmark events in the ongoing protests.
    But few people believe the chaos would bring any reflection on US politics. It will bring
    superficial impact and destruction, but the US political structure has been solidified. The US can
    hardly form any strong force to push forward reforms. The protests are now mainly pushed by
    African Americans. Yet, even if they are joined by mainstream Americans, perhaps nothing will
    change.
    Racial discrimination has been the most touchy issue among ethnic minorities in the US. But US
    administrative authority, and most US Congress members, did not take this opportunity to
    condemn the issue to comfort those hurt. The fundamental reason is that they don’t want to
    displease the white electorate. The Democratic Party also needs the vote of the white people, so
    they were also cautious on the issue.
    During the riots, a large part of the protesters’ grievances came from the fact that they, as the
    people at the bottom, suffered most of the pain caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic.
    Because the campaign strategy of the president’s team is to downplay the pain of the epidemic, the
    White House has rarely mentioned the epidemic in the past week, except when it needed to exploit
    the virus to attack China.
    The US is not there for ethnic minorities and poor people. Through the epidemic and the attitude
    of the ruling elites in the riots, people can see that these groups live in desperation. Because the
    poor have no way to unite under the US system and can easily be divided, their common
    dissatisfaction has a limited impact on elections, and they have never become the focus of
    attention of policymakers.
    China’s massive poverty alleviation program is just unthinkable in the US. The frosty attitude of
    capitalism against the vulnerable groups has been laid bare in the past few months. The poor in the
    US are experiencing a very bad 2020.
    Partisan politics has created severe divisions in society. Such divisions restrict and disturb people’s
    thinking. People’s support for a particular party is only a matter of stance, which provides a shelter
    to politicians who violate people’s interests.
    As elections come and go, it is simply about one group of elites replacing the other. The
    intertwined interests between the two groups are much greater than those between the victorious
    one and the electorate who vote for them.
    To cover such deception, the key agenda in the US is either a partisan fight or a conflict with
    foreign countries. The severe racial discrimination and wealth disparities are marginalized topics.
    The US presidential election is held once every four years, while the poor actually have no choice.
    There is no policy that addresses the issue of racial discrimination for them to vote, nor is there
    any social policy that truly benefits the poor and the vulnerable.
    African Americans and people at the bottom protest once in a while, with isolated cases being the
    fuse of the eruption. But it will not change anything, and they will eventually foot the bill for most
    of the destruction they make. Before a reasonable solution comes out, this periodic breakout

    becomes an unavoidable cycle.
    Judging from the superficial comments and statements from US politicians on the protests, the
    outsiders can easily draw the conclusion that solving problems is not on the minds of the country,
    and elites are just fearlessly waiting for this wave of demonstrations to die out.