NIGERIA vs INDIA: DISCOVERING THE GLOBAL POVERTY CENTRE
Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution’s report published on June 19th 2018 sparked another global debate on the veracity or otherwise of the use of projected statistics to discuss socio-cultural human phenomenon bothering humanity. The report, titled “The Start of a New Poverty Narrative” (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/futuredevelopment/2018/06/19/the-start-ofa-new-poverty-narrative/) claims that Nigeria now tops the rank of nations with the highest number of the extremely poor. According to the report, “Nigeria has already overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extreme poor in early 2018, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo could soon take over the number 2 spot.” Meaning, Nigeria is now the global poverty capital. The Nigerian federal government, as expected, has since debunked the Brookings report.
Today, extra ammunition to support Nigeria is provided by Umar Jibrilu Gwandu (umarungwandu@gmail.com), my colleague at Bayero University, Kano’s Mass Communication Department and who was also a Daily Trust journalist. Umar, who knows both countries very well, argues that there is no way Nigeria can be poorer than India. His argument:
“In India there are two great evils. Trampling on the women and grinding the poor through caste system” - Swami Vivekananda
The report asserts that “at the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India’s 73 million. What is more, extreme poverty in Nigeria is growing by six people every minute, while poverty in India continues to fall. In fact, by the end of 2018 in Africa as a whole, there will probably be about 3.2 million more people living in extreme poverty than there are today.”
Following the preferred reading the institution, some Nigerians who accept whatever “experts” from the foreign scene publish about the country accepted the report hook, line and sinker. In the same vein, as soon as the report was published, many took to the public sphere discussing the palpable implausibility in “new poverty narrative”.
For instance, all those who cared to go through the blog where the report was published will not miss to notice the torrent of condemnations the report generated. This is because the report failed to satisfy the curious minds in view of the lack of an elaborate discussion on the methodologies and modalities used by the Institution in coming out with the report. There were no specifications as to the number of towns and villages visited in the nations, and what poverty indices were used in determining the level of poverty in the countries alleged to be poor. The report is also marred with the absence of discourse of any scientifically-proven research procedure adopted in the study.
One of the commentators on the report’s blog, one Frank Humphrey, did not hide his doubt about the report as he wrote: “the speed of the fall in the Indian poverty headcount shown in Figure 1 is highly implausible. The authors may wish to revisit the x-axis, the data or their model”.
Another observer, Aaris Mohammaed, asked a rhetorical question: “How could a country with a definition of poverty @30 years old can achieve this with its present place in the Hunger Index; more than 50% productive age dependency? You need to be a bit serious, Mr. Brooks.”
Another comment by one who chose to be identified as BradB notes that “the article gives the statistics in persons per minute in the earlier paragraph - the negative stats, and then switches to persons per second later in the article - for the positive stats. Are you serious, Brookings? Pathetic.”
The thoughts shared by individuals including the three quoted above may not be unconnected with their knowledge of global poverty indices as presented by the World Bank. In a similar, earlier report in April 2013, the World Bank stated that “India houses one-third of the poor people in the world.”
Beyond the twin troubles of India - rape and racism - poverty remains the palpable feature of Incredible India. Contrary to the titillating and thrilling packaged images shown by the Indian media, a trip to the country will convey to you the veracity of the 2013 World Bank Report that India has the largest number of poor people in the world.
According to that report, the top five countries in terms of numbers of the poor, were India (with 33 percent of the world’s poor), China (13 percent), Nigeria (7 percent), Bangladesh (6 percent) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5 percent); which together were home to nearly 760 million of the world’s poor. Adding another five countries - Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya would encompass almost 80 percent of the extreme poor.
In 2013, the statistics showed that Nigeria had 53.2m inhabitants as poor while there were 250.8m poor people in India where it is not uncommon to find homeless and extreme poor couples with their kid(s) spending days and nights on the streets of major cities. Poor Indians die daily in their shanties during the monsoon season and during the annual heat wave/hot weather periods. The rate at which one comes across poor people begging at hotels and even airports of major cities of India is unmatched with any place in Nigeria.
With these scenarios, how can a US-based Institution called Brookings come in after only five years to come to publish a report on its blog claiming that India was able to reduce 177.8m poor people, but Nigeria’s poor people increased with 33.8m? According to Brookings, Nigeria that housed 7% of the poor in 2013 has not only multiplied its poverty level, but also surpassed India that had its number of poor people almost five times that of Nigeria. In “only” five years (2013-2018), there are now only 73m poor people in India - a miraculous reduction of 177.8m. This is to say that 35.5m people exit poverty annually in India. Incredible India!
Brookings’ statistics indicates that every day in India 98,777 exit poverty, which translates to the fact that every minute an average of 68 people exit poverty in that country. Is poverty a room that 68 people can get out the door every minute? What miracle! What Midas’ Touch! How can this be replicated elsewhere, especially in Brookings’ new poverty capital, Nigeria?
An issue that keeps reverberating in any discerning mind is that how come Nigeria was not the poorest nation on the globe when the country depended on foreign rice, but immediately becomes one just when it is fighting foreign rice and is about to reach self-sufficiency in rice production? Do you see what I see?
The likes of Brookings should be a challenge to the Nigerian Federal Government, especially the National Bureau of Statistics, to be up-to-date with their statistics on any issue in the country, and to be proactively releasing the data to the world so that facts are readily available to those who may not have access to our local information and domesticallyobtained data.
The National Orientation Agency also has the challenge of inculcating the spirit of patriotism and national ideals into the citizens of this country by providing them with positive statistics to help them counter any claims about and against Nigeria.
PS: From the Columnist - For Federal Government workers (such as university lecturers), today Saturday is 36th of June, 2018. If you see what I see.
Day FCM Yola separated conjoined twins for second time