• Paints gloomy picture of economy
From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
The United Nations (UN) in a report just released on Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis (CCA), has described the country as deeply divided.
According to the report, which was read during a consultative meeting on the formulation of the UN Development Assistance Framework IV (UNDAF IV) for the South-East geo-political zone in Awka, showed Nigeria as a “divided society on the basis of the plurality of ethnic, religious and regional identities that had tended to define the country’s political existence.”
The report observed that, for decades, different segments of Nigeria’s population had, at different times, expressed feelings of marginalisation, of being short-changed, dominated, oppressed, threatened, or even targeted for elimination.
It also painted a gloomy picture for the country as most of the development and social indices in Nigeria recorded much below acceptable standards.
The major challenges facing Nigeria, according to the report, were constraints of economic growth and social development and lack of good governance. The report also noted that “the situation was exacerbated by the existence of systematic accountability challenges at the federal, states and local government levels.”
It said: “Nigeria is one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world, with over 80 million or 64 per cent of her population living below poverty line. Poverty and hunger have remained high in rural areas, remote communities and among female-headed households and these cut across the six geo-political zones, with prevalence ranging from approximately 46.9 per cent in the South-West to 74.3 per cent in North-West and North-East.
“Nigeria’s economy is currently in a recession and it is estimated that government revenues have fallen by as much as 33 per cent, which has further resulted in the contraction of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.36 per cent in the first three months of 2016.
“The vulnerable macroeconomic environment in Nigeria is affecting investors’ confidence in the domestic economy.”
According to the report, despite Nigeria’s enormous resources, 37 per cent of children under five years old were stunted and 29 per cent underweight due to malnutrition just as only 10 per cent of children aged six to 23 months were fed appropriately based on recommended infant and young children feeding practices.
The report also revealed widespread cases of violence against women and girls, including physical and sexual assault, adding that 42 per cent of the youths were unemployed, “a situation that had led to poverty, helplessness and despair, thereby exposing them to easy target for crime and terrorism,” while over 10 million children of school age were out of schools with no knowledge and skills.
It also said, “despite the fact that Nigeria is a signatory to a number of protocols on sustainable and renewable environment, the country had, over the decades, failed to protect the environment, ecosystem and natural resources.
“Nigeria faces humanitarian and emergency crises of considerable proportions fueled by a combination of factors including climate change, inter-communal conflicts and violence, insurgency, recurring floods, heavy handed tactics of security forces in combating crime and insurgency. The overall consequence is the situation of systematic and chronic internal displacement that has given rise to different humanitarian crises that include the most egregious and dehumanising human rights abuses.”
It, therefore, recommended that “transforming and diversifying Nigeria’s development paths needed a radical and new approach, especially by investing in people and in a strong more dynamic and inclusive productive informal sector,” just as the agency called for a design and support of joint programmes to address good governance, peace and security.
Yes indeed,ours is a multi-cultural,a multi-ethnic and a multi-
religious country to begin with.
But the problem confronting us Nigerians today, is that a semi-illiterated and an Islamic bigot,Mallam Muhammadu Buhari ,is imposed on us as a President. But this bloke in question has got an acute form of Meniere Disease.He is simply mentally,morally and physically unfit to lead a complex country like Nigeria.
The current situation in Nigeria is such that, without an
immediate International Intervention, Nigerians might soon be heading for a civil war.It might simply need taking off Buhari
to start another civil war.But who is the brave cat out there to
bell the cat.Lol!!
The Power-that -be,the neo-colonialist Troglodytes have of late,been provoking and taking us,indigenous Nigerians for a ride.
Many ethnic Nigerians,especially the indigenous Christians of the MIddle- Belts, the South East and the South South,who have borne the brunts of marginalization,Islamic terrorism et
al, have simply come to the end of their teeters.
Of course,anything can happen,when people are thus, pushed to the wall, as it is the case all over Nigeria today.
Nigerian ruling elites are irredeemably and fantastically
corrupt to govern our county.They are all , without an exception Kleptocrats not Democrats.
Our Nigerian Senators and Members of Representatives,take home quarterly,ten times the amount of money, that their American counterparts earn annually as their salaries, pecks
and emoluments not included.
An that is in a country,where the minimum monthly wage is less than $50; a country without social outlets,where there is a dearth of everything taken for granted in our 21st century.
But the last straw that might be going to break the camel’s back
soon,is the making of our Niger Delta oil rich Region,the Nigerian equivalent of Sudan’s Darfur.
Our Nigerian muslim dominated Janjaweed Armed Forces,
have deployed an Armada of Gunboats, Helikopter Gunships and Artilleries against our Young Environmentalists,who are
merely standing up against the degradation of their
environment,and the destruction of their means of lifelihood.
For over half a century, the people of Niger Delta have seen
little to none of the vast oil revenue from their Region.They’
have been simply left to wallow in abject poverty and deprivation,while sitting on top of black gold.
All the oil wells in the their back yards and fishing waters belong to the victors,who won the Biafran-Nigerian war of
1967-1970.
That is a grosse injustice and simply a crime against humanity. It is therefore a genocide!
There is an urgent need to call for justice here. Enough is enough!
odikwa egwu o..
Dr. Uche Kalu. I have been following your comments on this platform with keen interest for long. I have come to realise that you are nothing but an ethnic, regional and sectional bigot that does naught but preach the gospel of hatred, sectionalism, racism, uprising, sedition and all other appellations of negativity. You and your kinsmen are solely responsible for deepening the already deeply divided Nigeria. It is very unfortunate that a sane person would continue inciting the populace to take up arms against a democratically constituted authority bcos of selfish interest. Actually I have started to question the sanity of people like you. People like you and people like Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) really need to have your heads thoroughly examined bcoz your presence in the society is detrimental to its harmonious existence. On the issue of Nigeria as a multi-ethnic country, I concur with the UN report that the nation is deeply divided along ethno-religious lines and it is completely not healthy. The present administration of PMB has lots to do to ensure an egalitarian society so as to forestall crisis that may degenerate to become civil war. However, the work is not only for the authorities, people like Dr Uche Kalu here, FFK and all other mischievous demagogues should desist from their prejudiced comments, speeches and writiings that are capable of provoking the already disgruntled and angry populace. Peace!