Nigeria Mark of Statistics And Her Polished Poverty

BY AVM RTD AKUGBE IYAMU MNSA fsi 

Drawing a new border will not erase old prejudices that is why if you are not handsome at 20, strong at 30, wise at 40 and successful at 50, you will need to forget about making it in life.

According to George Sylvester, when a nation growth is on paper, while the people sink in poverty, that is not progress but polished poverty wearing the mask of statistics. Nigeria has a great promise in size, in abundance of resources, cultural diversity and significance in extraordinary ways to build a giant in Africa. That is the quality of Nigeria, enormously blessed with richly fertile land. The country is a strong nation populated by vibrant, prosperous and enterprising people that have regional authority and global influence. When we look away from what should be and pretend to play the ostrich in statistics by focusing more on the minor, everyone including the country become the loser. Nigeria challenge is a clear capacity problem worsened by poor planning and lack of foresight. That is why when we compared the number of Nigerians per regime living in poverty and hunger, I was shocked. That is what public communications are unable to bring out. It has become putrid.

The cost of underdevelopment is not paid by the leaders alone, it is paid by all of us. When repeated statistics has started looking like standard, everything outside it begin to look like a flaw. This perhaps is the current situation of Nigeria statistics, hunger and polished poverty are beginning to look like the standard. Globally, the wealth of a country is the economic power in the hand of its citizens. Whenever you pay the people appropriately, the money rightly belongs to them. In that case, citizens are encouraged and empowered to resume the role of economic agents instead of remaining hopeless spectators in the life of their country.

This is the refreshing embrace of government by the people who elected it. The contentment of the people is the measures of a country’s economic prosperity and the efficiency of government. The driving force of government is the people, their welfare and wishes. In any country, infrastructural development must go beyond the roads and schools, must go up in line with futuristic education policy.

For statistics to bring prosperity, the country’s development need healthcare that are increasingly delivered in modernized hospitals and healthcare facilities, the reemergence of new transportation systems with electric energy efficiency vehicles spanning out to major centres of commerce across the federation.

Overall as Nigerians, we must draw the country we want, draw what it should look like and the pathways to getting there.

AVM RTD AKUGBE IYAMU MNSA fsi

PRESIDENT ASSOCIATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE PRACTITIONERS

CONSULTANT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ANALYST ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND COMMENTATOR ON NATIONAL ISSUES

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