By Olu Fasan

NIGERIANS are poor and hungry. The government is in denial, but deep poverty and hunger are ravaging Nigerians. This country has acquired the shameful sobriquet poverty capital of the world, because it has the world’s largest concentration of extremely poor people.

According to the World Data Lab, over 90 million Nigerians are in extreme poverty. That’s more than the numbers in India and China combined. It’s beyond belief: With a population of 190 million, Nigeria has more people in extreme poverty than both China and India, each with a population of over one billion.

Nigeria- map

Even more troubling, while extreme poverty is falling in India and China, it’s growing in Nigeria. The World Data Lab’s analysis shows that six people fall into extreme poverty in Nigeria every minute. Yes, every single minute!

Of course, as poverty grows, so does hunger. A recent United Nations’ report said that two-thirds of the world’s hungriest people live in Nigeria and seven other countries. With so little personal incomes, that’s not surprising.

The middle class is defined as people who can afford to spend up to $110 (N39,482) a day. Yet, according to the World Bank, 92.1 per cent of Nigerians live on below $5.5 (N1,974) a day – yes, 92.1 per cent, and that includes the nearly 50 per cent extremely poor who live on below $1.90 (N682.00) a day. Truth is, Nigeria is a nation of predominantly poor people, living in penury. They are in the throes of the two most devastating human scourges: poverty and hunger!

But what, in such a dire situation, should a government do? Well, some, like the Buhari government, would respond with social intervention programmes such as cash transfer schemes.

In his first budget speech in 2015, President Buhari said his administration was “compiling registers of the poorest persons”, with a view to implementing a conditional cash transfer scheme. Last week, Buhari’s special adviser on National Social Welfare Programme, Maryam Uwais, said the government had “over 700,000 people on the National Social Register” and had paid “about 300,000 people under the conditional cash transfer scheme.”

George Orwell must have had the Buhari government in mind when he described political language as being “designed to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” International studies show that there are over 90 million Nigerians in extreme poverty, and that six people join them every minute. Yet, the Buhari government is trumpeting giving a pittance to 300,000 people as an achievement. What definition of “extreme poverty” did the government use to come up with the 700,000 people on its so-called “National Social Register”?

How many people have escaped extreme poverty or, indeed, dropped out of the ignominiously named “social register” since President Buhari introduced his social welfare programme? The answer is none. If anything, extreme poverty is growing!

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Of course, extreme poverty will grow because social interventions, while they have their place as supplements, are mere palliatives and not the solution to poverty. For a start, they are too expensive and no government, whether through borrowing and/or taxation, can really afford or sustain them. Secondly, they often amount to throwing good money after bad because they entrench poverty rather than take people out of it. The Buhari government said it spent N300 billion on its cash transfer scheme in the last three years. But what positive impact has that had on tackling extreme poverty in this country? Well, as the evidence shows, none!

The truth is, economic growth is the most powerful tool to reduce poverty. Growth is a rising tide that lifts all boats. And the two key drivers of growth are trade and long-term foreign direct investment. No nation has succeeded or tackled poverty without them. But trade and FDI are products of deliberate policies of economic openness.

In 1990, the number of Chinese people living in extreme poverty was 755.8 million, but by 2015, it was 10 million, according to the World Bank. How? Well, unsurprisingly, the seismic shift happened during the period of intense economic reform, including trade liberalisation, in China.

Trade, especially imports, is particularly significant because it can have immediate positive impact on poverty and hunger. Leaving aside the fact that imports stimulate growth by providing sources of cheap inputs, including technologies, for manufacturing, they also directly allow citizens to buy more, better-quality products at lower costs, leaving them with more disposable income. Throughout history, nations have responded to poverty and hunger by removing or reducing tariffs on imports.

For instance, the Irish potato famine in 1845 prompted Britain to repeal the corn laws, which protected landowners and raised the prices of imported food items. In 2000, African leaders pledged to reduce or waive tariffs on mosquito nets and drugs needed to tackle malaria. No sensible nation responds to poverty, hunger and disease by restricting access to cheap imports.

Yet, despite pervasive poverty and hunger, Nigeria is banning or restricting the imports of consumer goods in a misguided attempt to achieve “self-sufficiency” by diktat. Import restrictions or bans are anti-consumers. They are not justified in times of plenty, even less so amid excruciating poverty and hunger. Cutting food prices must be a priority of any government. Not in Nigeria, sadly!