It is an irony that Nigeria, the sixth largest exporter of oil, the largest oil producing country in Africa, is also host to over 100 million people living in poverty, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently.

Poverty has become a household name in Nigeria. Majority of the country’s population, according to the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics are poor.

THE tragedy of poverty in Nigeria hinges on three points. Some Nigerians because they have billions they stashed away in whatever currency believe they are not poor. Those appointed to fight poverty are occupied with spending public resources liberating themselves from the scourge. Religious organisations are teaching that poverty is a disease, a curse from above, a punishment for the misdeed of the ancestors, thereby stigmatising the poor.

THREE weeks ago I was at a meeting in Accra, Ghana, in preparation for the biennial African Feminist Forum, which is convened by the African Women’s Development Fund, AWDF, an Africa-wide grant-making foundation for African women which I co-founded twelve years ago.

SINCE the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed underwear bomb attack on North West Delta Airline in Detroit on December 25, 2009, the United States has adopted stringent measures to on its visa issuance procedures and policy, thereby making it a matter of providence to gain access to the document.