OPINION
New Naira Notes and All Things New
By Reuben Abati
“I hear the politicians have come up with a plan to delay the redesign of the denominations.
”“My own brother!”
“What’s up men? Have you gone to deposit all the N200, N500, N1,000 notes that you have at home in the banks so you can exchange them for new notes by the deadline of January 31?”
“What is my business with depositing old notes in the banks? I don’t keep money at home.
I don’t have the kind of money the Central Bank of Nigeria is looking for. ”“The CBN did not say they are looking for money. They simply want to manage money supply better. Out of about N3.7 trillion in circulation, more than N2 trillion is outside the banking system.
The Central Bank wants to call in all of the N3.7 trillion, and then send it back into the system. This is something other Central Banks do every five or eight years. The last time Nigeria printed new currency notes was 20 years ago, and besides, the CBN is just doing its job.”“Listen to yourself. They just want N3.7 trillion brought back into the banking system. They are not looking for people who are likely to faint if they see a billion naira cash. Did you not hear the President? He said the people they are looking for are people with illicit money. Those people who hide money inside overhead water tanks, in cemeteries and other corner-corner places. The people who speak in billions, and who cannot take their money to the banks. Government wants them to bring out the money. E no concern me. I no get any illicit money. Na dem dem.”
“The cash component of money in circulation affects everyone. Even your small amount that you have at home, even if it is a few thousands, once it is in the N200, N500 or N1,000 denominations, you have to take it into the bank.”
“But I thought the Minister of Finance has said she is not aware of the policy and that it could have grave consequences.”
“The Minister of Finance does not know what she is talking about apparently. The CBN does not report to her. The CBN is in charge of monetary policy in line with Section 2 of the Central Bank Act of 2007. The Minister of Finance is in charge of fiscal policy, and in any case the Board of the CBN has among its members the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and the Accountant General of the Federation.”
“But did the CBN Board discuss this plan to print new currency notes?”
“I am not in a position to know. And well, what does it matter? The President of Nigeria has said that the CBN has his backing. Under Section 19 of the CBN Act, the Bank is required to request authorisation from the President with regard to three things: its Annual Report, if it wants to invest outside Nigeria, and if it wants to make alterations to the currency. We have heard from the CBN twice that it acted within the province of the law. We have also heard the President publicly telling everyone that the CBN is in order. Please, who is the Minister of Finance?”
“You mean who is the constituted authority?”
“I leave that to you to decide”.
“But why the secrecy? Is it that these people don’t trust each other? I understand this same President did the same thing in 1984. We need proper alignment between fiscal policy and the monetary side of things.”
“The country’s national currency is a matter of national security. It is not everything that you tell everybody before you take action. In this country, people are always looking for a way to cheat and game the system. If you disclose your plans, they can share with others and before you know it, your proposals will die even before they become policy.”
“Particularly those politicians who have hidden money away to do serious battle during the 2023 general election. We have seen it before: “dibo ko se obe o”, meaning vote for our party and prepare a pot of soup today. Stomach infrastructure. Election sandwich. But in any case, politicians keep their money in dollars, not naira.”
“Nigeria’s currency is the naira, not the dollar. The dollarisation of the Nigerian economy is an indication of fundamental problems in the management of our economy.”
“I will rather have dollar, please.”
“But both are connected. The dollar is the primary reserve currency of the world, that is why when the US Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, raises rates, the effect is felt globally. Those who have money keep it in dollar, and buy dollar, as a wedge against the naira, and that is why immediately after the CBN announced the plan to redesign the three currency notes, the naira immediately depreciated in the parallel market. In less than a week, it has moved from N778 to the dollar to N865 to the dollar, with implications for inflation. This is why many economists are nervous about the cost of the policy.”
“Ha. What a country!”
“What is funny?”
“The way Nigerians are experts in everything… If the subject is security, everybody is a security expert; if it is a legal matter, even my mechanic would argue that he knows better than judges; and now that the matter is the redesign of the new notes, everybody is now an economist, lawyer and analyst join on top!”
“But people have a right to express opinions about something that can affect their lives. Things like cost, effect on the naira and the foreign exchange and why now? Because of politics, government is redesigning naira notes close to Christmas and election?”
“I know, and I think that is why Sheik Ahmad Gumi says kidnappers will start collecting ransom in dollars and that government is about to commit economic suicide by asking people to deposit their money in the banks!”
“Sheik Gumi is an educated man. He is a medical doctor, a retired Captain of the Nigerian army and a respected cleric. But is he an economist?”
“Are you an economist?”
“I don’t go about reading the mind of kidnappers.”
“You don’t get the point. Where were you when Primate Elijah Ayodele of the INRI Church asked President Buhari to sack the CBN governor because the plan to redesign some dominations of the naira will not stop terrorism or insecurity. Is that from the Bible or the Primate’s personal opinion? Ah, this country! This was how one prophetess was also quoted copiously by a section of the media saying the reason there is flood across parts of the country is because the goddess of the river is angry.”
“This thing called free speech and its dangers.”
“Let me ask you something? Can the Banks handle the massive pressure that the rush to deposit old notes in the banks will cause? Why is the allotted time for deposit and access to the new N200, N500 and N1,000 notes so short? The last time the UK changed some of its currency notes, it gave the people up to one year.”
“I believe that is a legitimate thing to worry about. But you know your country. People will wait till the last minute before they begin to act. I think the CBN needs to do a lot more to enlighten the people. The deadline of January 31st can still stand, then after the election, government can announce an extension. That is the way I see it.”
“But these new notes that everybody is talking about, will the banks pay depositors with new notes? In this country, the only place you can see new notes is at event centres during weekend parties. People hawk the naira the way they sell serviette papers and they do so at a premium. But you go to the banks, what you can get is mutilated, smelly notes. What can the CBN do about that? The threat to this economy is not just those parallel market dealers, but the mint naira merchants on the streets.”
“What I know is that it is an offence to sell the naira like a commodity, mutilate it, deface it or step on it, but nobody enforces the law.”
“But I hear this time around, EFCC has read the riot act, that anybody that is found playing hanky-panky with money will be dealt with according to the law. In fact, EFCC officers will be deployed to all banking halls to monitor how people bring in money to the banks.”
‘That’s funny. How many banks can the EFCC monitor? There is a reporting mechanism in place if you do money transactions beyond certain thresholds. Banks have structures in place to inform the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) or the EFCC. They only need to deepen their infrastructure. By the way, the CBN is hoping that through this exercise, it can deepen financial inclusion and intermediation.”
“I hear the politicians have come up with a plan to delay the redesign of the denominations.”
‘Tell me.”
“I understand that there is a case in court challenging the Arabic inscriptions on the naira notes.”
“It is called Ajami.”
“Ajami or Arabic. Some lawyers are saying all that needs to be done is to get an injunction to stop the CBN because until the matter before the court is determined, the proposed redesign of the notes will be sub judice.”
“Court?”
“Yes, court.”
“Okay, we are here. We will see. Have you not read that the CBN will not remove the Ajami on the naira notes? They have been on that matter since 2020. They will still be on it by the time your grandson graduates from college.”
“Well, bros, let us drop matter. I have discussed this matter so much I am beginning to think something is wrong with me. I don’t want to die in their war. If they want to change the colour of money, let them do so. Wetin be my own? I am more concerned about the future – the 2023 general elections. INEC has announced that the voters’ register now has 93. 5 million voters and that the register would be displayed and reviewed in 8, 809 wards and 774 local government areas from Nov. 12-25. Quite a lengthy list of voters – about 9.3 million pages long. How do I go through that?”
“I am sure you can. But what I find interesting about the new register is the demographics: 12.29 million new voters added to the register, out of which about 2.78 million were found to be illegal registrants.”
“INEC said 23 INEC officers aided and abetted the illegal registration. Those persons must be punished!”
“I agree but talking about the demographics, I was going to say that when you look at the breakdown, the largest number of registered voters are young people between the ages of 18–34; that is 76.5% of the total; followed by women – 50.8%; and students – 40.8%. It is thus clear that the 2023 general election will be determined by women and youths. And the major battle grounds will be Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Rivers and Katsina, which have the highest number of voters. In general, the bulk of the voters are from the seven states of the North-West. The political parties have a lot of work to do to mobilise the voters to prevent voter apathy. We must also ensure that INEC gets the Permanent Voters Cards ready for collection and that the people collect them. It is not enough for anyone’s name to be on the voter’s register. You must have your PVC and you must go out to vote on election day.”
“My own is that nobody should tamper with BVAS – the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System that will prevent rigging and manipulation on election day. The days of multiple voting should come to an end, and it is good that INEC has promised that this piece of technology and innovation, an advancement on the smart card reader, would be fully deployed to keep the riggers out.”
“You are correct. On point.”
“I am always on point”.
“No, not always.”
“I am on point, for example, to say that the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu had no point boasting that he has the powers to stop Governor Samuel Ortom’s senatorial ambition and that of others in the Party who may be interested in other positions. He also didn’t have to boast that nobody can sack him. That is provocative. The party Chairman, no matter the provocation, should always try to unify his own base and not make divisive comments.”
“A man has a right to stand up for himself. Governor Wike and his allies have been bullying Senator Ayu for months. It is now his turn to cry out and fight back.”
“We’re talking leadership. No party Chairman can boast that he will stop anybody. The Electoral Act 2022 spells out clearly how an elective office seeker can be stopped. It does not give any God-like powers to the party leader. Besides, a leader is like a refuse dump. The refuse dump does not choose which garbage they throw on it.”
“Is that a metaphor or a proverb? You better talk straight because the young people these days are not interested in any form of round-about thinking. Don’t tell them anything about words and palm oil. No. These ones are the Shawarma generation. They were brought up with groundnut oil, not palm oil!”
“But just see how Wike has attacked the PDP party Chairman telling him that Governor Ortom was his guarantor without whom he could not have been party Chairman. Or Governor Seyi Makinde sending a representative to a meeting between Afenifere and the APC presidential candidate in Pa Reuben Fasoranti’s home in Akure.”
“Please, I don’t want to comment any further on that Afenifere subject. Let Afenifere resolve their own internal crisis.”
“Afenifere is a conclave of elders. The elders will decide.”
“This is a democracy. They can decide for themselves as individual citizens and as persons who are entitled to one vote. But I abhor group-think, or herd mentality or any intimations of it. People are free to endorse or not endorse whoever they want but the pillar of democracy is the right of the people to make their own informed choice, freely, without let or hindrance.”
“I think I hear sef say that una Baba don go London again for medical check- up oh.”
“My friend, are you okay?”
OPINION
Kemi Badenoch: It’s Time for a Rethink
By Tunde Rahman
Kemi Badenoch’s ill-advised denigration of Nigeria has refused to go away.
Her belittlement of the country of her ancestry is still generating passionate public discourse within and outside the media space, and it appears the matter will not go away anytime soon.Exasperated by Kemi Badenoch’s misguided attacks on Nigeria, Vice President Kashim Shettima recently counselled her to drop the Kemi in her name and bleach her ebony skin to white to further appease her Tory party and British establishment.
And perturbed and seemingly lost by all that, my daughter, Kemi Mushinat, who recently graduated in communication studies, asked what was wrong with the name Kemi. There is nothing wrong with the name, I explained. But a lot is wrong with Kemi Badenoch (Nee Adegoke), the leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, who opted to behave, as the Yoruba would describe it, “bi omo ale to fi owo osi ju we ile baba e”, meaning like a child who would go out to denigrate her ancestry by pointing the offensive finger at her roots.Honour and dignity are inherent in the name Oluwakemi, indeed in any name. But what confers dignity, what glorifies a name, is the character the bearer brings into it. Kemi Badenoch left much to be desired, disparaging Nigeria, our motherland. She painted a gory picture of her growing up years in Nigeria from the middle of the ’80s to around 1996, highlighting stories of poverty, infrastructure decay, decadence, corruption, police excesses, and leadership failure. Perhaps some of her narratives could be true, particularly in the time that immediately followed the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) misrule and the indiscretion of the emergent military regime.
However, her stories reek of generalisations and prejudices often associated with most analyses by a section of Western media and commentators. They view Nigeria with their jaundiced lenses, describing the country as made of a Muslim north and Christian south, oblivious of the various Christian minorities in the north and the plethora of Muslims in the south and the multiplicity of ethnic groups in the two divides that make a mockery of any analysis of a monolithic north or south. They view us Africans with many unproven, unorthodox assumptions.
My problem is with Badenoch, an African, whichever way you slice it, and the character she has chosen. When Vice President Shettima lambasted her for demeaning Nigeria, Kemi Badenoch thought she had a clincher. “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as Nigerian,” she said. “I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity (Yoruba). That’s what I am. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where the Islamism is; those were our ethnic enemies and yet you end up being lumped in with those people.”
In that statement, the Tory leader disavowed Nigeria and excoriated the north but exalted the Yoruba. She repudiated the whole, attacking one part of the nation but embracing another. Kemi Badenoch grossly misfired, hiding under the finger of ethnic nationalism.
Perhaps it would have been pardonable if, for instance, she opposed Nigeria’s federal system and canvassed regionalism or confederacy. To condemn one race and elevate another is like playing one part against another. That utterance is dangerous in a diverse and volatile society like ours. The north (read the Hausa-Fulani, Kanuri, Tiv, Birom, Mangu, Ibira, Nupe, and many others who cohabit the entire northern region) is no enemy of the Yoruba as Badenoch insinuated.
The north voted massively for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba man, to emerge president in 2023, as they did for the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, the winner of the annulled June 12 election in 1993. To label them the enemies of the Yoruba is condemnable.
Badenoch’s Yoruba roots emphasise good character and promote good neighbourliness, religious harmony, peaceful co-existence, respect for elders, and respect for other people’s rights. That is why Yoruba intermarry with members of different ethnic groups. It’s also commonplace in Yorubaland to find members of the same family having adherents of Islam and Christianity cohabiting together without any hassles. Boko Haram or its last vestiges poses a security challenge, perhaps a religious and sociopolitical challenge, for Nigeria, not just for the north or the north-east which is why the government and our armed forces have battled to a standstill and are still battling the insurgents.
Therefore, the values the UK Conservative leader espoused did not represent the Yoruba. They are not the values the Yoruba would showcase, uphold, and promote. Yoruba has a rich history of culture, tradition, leadership, and loyalty to constituted authority.
Badenoch’s formative years, which she derided with negative stories of decadence, perfidy, and corruption, were part of Nigeria’s dark periods when the military held the country and the people by the jugular.
Is Kemi Badenoch now giving the impression that nothing has changed in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, where she grew up after birth in London? Is she giving the impression there have not been significant improvements in the standard of living and infrastructure, with the rehabilitation of existing roads and opening up of new ones; in transportation with the multi-modal system complemented by water transportation and now the rail system, among other things?
Despite its challenges, there is no doubt there has been a remarkable development in Lagos from the foundation laid by then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now President Tinubu) from 1999 to 2007 till the present Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to the point that Lagos has emerged as one of largest economies in Africa. Lagos State has made significant progress across all indices of development such that if it were a country, it would have ranked the sixth largest economy on the continent.
What has emerged in the entire Kemi Badenoch’s saga is her seeming double-face or multiple-face. When she was campaigning to represent her diverse Dulwich and West Norwood Constituency in the UK Parliament in 2010, she had appealed to the Nigerian community, comprising Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo, under the aegis of “Nigerians for Kemi Badenoch,” pleading for help in the election.
A campaign document that surfaced on social media showed she had reached out to all Nigerians in that constituency while highlighting her roots. In that document, Badenoch had said to her Nigerian supporters: “I need your help. I’m running for parliament in the 2010 UK general elections. The race is very tight. Last year, the News of the World surveyed this constituency, and the forecast was that I would win. Things are much tougher this year as the party has dropped nationally in the polls. I need your help.
“I am asking for your help now to support a Nigerian trying to improve our national image and do something great here.”
After winning the election, however, she deployed her situation in Nigeria as a talking point to rally support for her policies, for which she was accused of exploiting her roots for political gains.
Her rhetoric has drastically changed with her emergence as the Leader of the Conservative Party. In the carriage, conduct and statements, she is now out to please the White establishment, particularly the White wing of her Conservative Party, subjugating her people to make Britain look good. She doesn’t mind running down anyone, including the Nigerian people and the British blacks generally.
Will this advance her politics or status? I do not think so. The British respect culture and tradition. Running down a country’s history and culture may not attract much attention. Britain also respects her relations with other countries, particularly Nigeria, given our age-long relationship. Nigeria is a significant trade and investment partner of the UK in Africa. According to the UK Department for Business and Trade, as of December 20 2024, the total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Nigeria amounted to £7.2 billion in the four quarters up to the end of Q2 2024, an increase of 1.2% or £86 million in current prices from the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023.
Britain would not want to harm that substantial trade partnership and excellent relationship between the two countries in any way.
Also, several Badenoch’s Conservative Party members do not share her attitude towards Nigeria. In Zanzibar, I recently ran into Jake Berry, a top Tory Party member and former cabinet member in the UK. While discussing the Badenoch matter, he said most Conservative Party members disagreed with her.
Kemi Badenoch has recorded an outstanding achievement in two decades of entering British politics. She joined the Conservative Party at the age of 25. Today, she stands not just as the Leader of the biggest party in Britain’s history but also as the highest black person in the United Kingdom. Her extraordinary accomplishment should have been used to inspire young people to achieve similar feats and as a foundation to inspire positive change in her country of origin, not to denigrate Nigeria or cause division and disaffection among her people. It is not too late for Badenoch to rethink and toe the line of rectitude.
Rahman is the senior special assistant on media matters to President Tinubu.
OPINION
In the Matter of GTBank’s Persecution of Poor Bloggers
By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
By the time Muhammadu Buhari ran for a second presidential term in 2019, it seemed clear that the judicial process in many parts of the country had been actively co-opted in the intimidation of civic opponents of the government, both real and imagined.
The case of Steven Kefas was a defining moment in that process.Steven was a compelling activist and amplifier of the crisis of human security in Southern Kaduna under former governor, Nasir el-Rufai.
For this, el-Rufai arranged his abduction from his residence in Rivers State on 8 May 2019. From there they bundled Steven into interminable detention in Kaduna, on the imagined crime of criminally defaming Cafra Caino, an acolyte of the governor who was also chair of the Kajuru Local Government Council.For this invented crime, el-Rufai had Steven charged before a Magistrate in Kaduna, who refused him bail even when the crime was clearly a misdemeanour. Steven renewed his application for bail before the Federal High Court in Kaduna where the presiding judge, Peter Mallong, incredulously ruled that his suit was “an abuse of court process” because the Magistrate had previously refused bail. Turning judicial precedent on its head, Peter Mallong held that the decision of the Magistrate was binding on the Federal High Court.
Gloria Ballason, who argued Steven’s case, was also my lawyer when el-Rufai sought to abduct me too in circumstances that would have been not dissimilar to what he did to Steven. On the eve of the presidential election in 2019, el-Rufai went public with claims of the massacre of scores of Fulanis in Kajuru, a community against which he appeared to have an implacable beef. The following morning, I publicly rebutted his claims. The security services were pointedly unable to support his claims.
After the 2019 elections, el-Rufai instructed my prosecution before the Magistrates Court in Kaduna on the fanciful charges of incitement and injurious falsehood. The case did not even have a charge number. The magistrate called up the case on two successive occasions and, when I did not show up, decided the time was ripe to issue a warrant for my abduction. Contrary to my entitlements under the Nigerian constitution, they did not even bother to bring the charges to my attention. It seemed as if the entire objective from the beginning was to set me up for abduction.
Informed off-record about the case by sympathetic law enforcement agents subsequently, Gloria Ballason first issued filings objecting to how the court had chosen to proceed. Thereafter, she instituted proceedings before Peter Mallong’s Federal High Court in Kaduna against el-Rufai and the police, arising out of these facts, alleging the breach of my constitutional rights.
One year after the case was instituted, in October 2020, Peter Mallong issued his decision. He claimed that the affidavit in support of my court processes, sworn to by a litigation clerk in the law firm of my lawyers, was incompetent because the deponent was someone other than me. It was as if he had never heard of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, which allowed for what the litigation clerk did. As a result, Peter Mallong said my case was incompetent and his court lacked jurisdiction over it. After holding that he lacked jurisdiction, however, Peter Mallong went on to “dismiss” my case.
The judgment was manifestly crooked on the face of the record. A judge can only dismiss a case that s/he has had the opportunity to consider but a judge cannot consider a case over which s/he lacks jurisdiction. So, a judge who rules that he or she lacks jurisdiction cannot thereafter decide to dismiss the same case. That is exactly what Peter Mallong did. Having accomplished such crookedness, he then went on to award punitive costs against me.
It was this kind of casuistic and crooked jurisprudence that emboldened el-Rufai and his ilk to routinise the persecution of Nigerian citizens by abduction under the cover of law. I was lucky. Steven Kefas was not. Gloria Ballason’s tenacity and an international campaign eventually enabled to Steven to make bail after 162 days in pre-trial detention in Kaduna prison.
According to Steven, while he suffered prolonged pre-trial detention for an imaginary crime framed against him for being a critic of government, he witnessed kidnappers caught in the act being released without charges. Steven’s explanation is that: “What the oppressive elites do in Nigeria is that they will hire rogue lawyers to help them draft all manner of petitions to get critics and ‘enemies of the government’ abducted and locked up….”
This appears to be the perfect description for what is happening in an ongoing case involving the prosecution of Precious Eze, Olawale Olurotimi, Rowland Olonishuwa and Seun Odunlami before the Federal High Court in Lagos. The accused are all bloggers who run different platforms as citizen journalists or aggregators.
On 19 September, Country Hill, a law firm acting on behalf of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and its CEO, Segun Agbaje, wrote a petition in which they complained against the accused for what they called “acts of cyberbullying, criminal extortions (sic) and conducts (sic) likely to cause a breach of public peace” arising reportedly from material published on their blogs about Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank). Importantly, the complaint omitted any mention of the sums that any of the suspects allegedly extorted or sought to. Subsequent investigation by the police showed clearly that upon the material being brought to their attention by intermediaries, the suspects had voluntarily pulled down the publications complained of.
Acting on this petition, nevertheless, the police promptly arrested and detained Precious Eze and Olawale Olurotimi, both of who have been held in pre-trial custody since then. By the date you read this, each of them would have been in pre-trial custody for over 91 days. That is more than double the maximum duration of 42 days of pre-trial custody allowed by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
It took the police just four days to conclude investigation. Michael Abu, the chief superintendent of Police (CSP) who led the investigation into GTBank’s petition, wrote in his report of 23 September, with reference to Precious Eze and Olawale Olurotimi, that “these types of people be used as scapegoat” and recommended that they be “charged to court for the offence (sic) of conspiracy, cyberbullying, attempt to extort money through fraudulent means and conduct likely to cause the breach of peace.”
On 14 October, the police re-arraigned them. Ten days later, the amended charges filed against them included six counts of cyberbullying and two each of conspiracy and extortion. To prosecute them, GTBank secured the “fiat” of the Inspector General of Police to instruct a high-powered team of ten lawyers, including three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs). This is a classic example of “oppressive elites” capturing the criminal process for destructive purposes against poor citizens.
Until now, the people who orchestrate these kinds of travesties and their judicial and legal co-travelers have enjoyed earthly impunity. Judges like Peter Mallong made this possible. The one lesson, however, of the Dele Farotimi case is that citizens now have the wherewithal to make these kinds of perversion of the legal and criminal process costly for those who orchestrate them.
In this case of Precious Eze and Olawale Olurotimi, that should be even moreso, given that the travesty is procured at the instance of a commercial and corporate actor. We are both citizens and customers. In this dual capacity we have the muscle to resist the determined conspiracy of politicians and corporates who seek to muzzle and destroy an informed and responsible civics. It is not too late for GTBank to retrace its steps.
Odinkalu, a lawyer, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu.
OPINION
Why 53.9% of Nigerian Children are Multi-dimensionally Poor – Report
The Situation Analysis (SitAn) of Children in Nigeria Report has identified some of the reasons why 53.
9 per cent of children in the country are multi-dimensionally poor.The report, launched during the 2024 World Children’s Day celebration on Nov. 20, is a policy document prepared by the Federal Government with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to identify and understand specific child issues.
According to the report, corruption, unemployment, lack of political will, violence and insurgency and inadequate investment in social sectors play significant roles in making Nigerian children poor.
It added that displacement and resettlement place additional pressure on existing resources, further exacerbating child poverty in Nigeria.
The report defined child poverty as “a situation where children experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to stay alive, develop and thrive, thus leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential and participate as full and equal members of society.”
It stated that the seven poverty indicators for children are: health, water, sanitation, nutrition, shelter, education and information.
Explaining the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) analysis, the report noted that across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), disparities exist in the multi-dimensional poverty of children.
It added that “in Osun State, the incidence of poverty was lowest at 17.5 per cent, incidence of deprivation was 35.5 per cent and the Human Development Index (HDI) ranking was 14th in Nigeria.
“In Sokoto State, the incidence of poverty was very high at 89.9 per cent, incidence of deprivation was 50.4 per cent and the HDI ranking was 37 per cent.
“In Lagos State, poverty incidence was 27.8 per cent, incidence of deprivation was 36.8 per cent, while the HDI ranking was one per cent.”
The report indicated that when disaggregated by rural and urban, 29.7 per cent of urban children were multi-dimensionally poor against 65.7 per cent of rural children.
It added that children living in Sokoto State 80.4 per cent, Kebbi 74.9 per cent and Zamfara 74 per cent were worse off, experiencing the highest multidimensional deprivation.
“On the other hand, less than 20 per cent of children living in Edo (19 per cent) and Lagos State (17.3 per cent) were multi-dimensionally poor.
“Multi-dimensionally poor children living in Sokoto State deprived in 74.1 per cent of the total number of deprivations compared to 57.7 per cent of children living in Lagos.”
It said that households with higher number of members and/or children show higher multidimensional deprivation rates than smaller households.
It also implied that children in homes with uneducated household heads and/or mothers are more likely to be multi-dimensionally poor compared with children whose household heads attained secondary or higher education levels.
It stated that a larger proportion of children with illiterate mothers are multi-dimensionally poor than children with literate mothers.
“A striking case of multiple deprivations among children can be observed in the case of Almajiri children.
“These children are always on the move and are deprived of decent living conditions, good food and nutrition, water and basic sanitation, access to healthcare facilities, access to education and parental care.
“They are also deprived protection from violence and abuse, participation in decisions affecting their lives, and are often subjected to child labour and abuse.
“They are also taken advantage of during times of conflict and often obliged to carry arms.”
To ameliorate the situation, the report recommended that stakeholders should play certain roles.
It said that family and close caregivers should play crucial roles in alleviating child poverty and securing protection for children.
The report notes that children in poverty depend greatly on the existence of public healthcare, education and social services to develop capabilities and learn to function.
It added that these institutions and their programmes therefore must be inclusive and structured in an affordable and accessible way and be used by children who need them.
“Effective governance at all levels will ensure sound policy, equitable spread and judicious use of resources for investments that enhance household livelihoods, reduce poverty and foster the rights of children.
“Government needs to support families and households by providing minimum income that is sustainable to ensure that financial barriers do not prevent children from reaching their potential.”
Report says that SitAn was first published in 2022 primarily based on household survey data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2016-2017) and the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS 2018).
An updated version was published and launched in 2024 to support government’s efforts to shape policies and shift investment patterns to benefit Nigerian children. (NAN)