Nigeria must institutionalise social protection to tackle poverty

The federal government has been asked to prioritise and strengthen social protection policies as part of measures to tackle poverty in the country. The founding Executive Director of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Dr. Otive Igbuzor said this on Saturday in Abuja at the 21st bi-annual leadership lecture of the […]

The federal government has been asked to prioritise and strengthen social protection policies as part of measures to tackle poverty in the country.

The founding Executive Director of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Dr. Otive Igbuzor said this on Saturday in Abuja at the 21st bi-annual leadership lecture of the school and graduation ceremony of set 21.

The event themed, ‘Leadership, Social Protection and Poverty Eradication’ was organised by Centre LSD, with support by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and other partners.

“Social protection has been acknowledged across the world as a veritable way to reduce poverty.    But Nigeria has not benefited from the gains of Social Protection. Poverty rate in Nigeria increased from 15 percent in 1960 to 28.1 percent in 1980 to 69.2 percent in 1997 to about 40 percent currently.

“By 2014, Nigeria ranked third in hosting the largest number of poor people in the world after India (first position) and China (second position).  But by 2018, Nigeria was declared as the world poverty capital with around 87 million people living in extreme poverty compared with India’s 73 million according to the World Poverty Clock.

“It is important to note that the population of Nigeria in 2018 was estimated to be about 195.9 million which is about 15 percent of the population of India (1.353 billion) and 14 percent of China (1.393 billion), yet it hosted the largest number of poor people in the world. The change was partly as a result of social protection policies implemented by China and India combined with enlightened leadership and pressure from below,” Igbuzor said.

He quoted the McKinsey Global Report that in 2018, China lifted 713m people and India 170m people out of poverty between 1990 and 2013, a feat they achieved through inclusive, pro-poor growth; fiscal policies for wealth redistribution; employment generation; public service provision and social protection.

He said, “Therefore, what needs to be done to eradicate poverty is known. There are clearly policies that are anti-poor and there are others that are pro-poor. Anti-poor policies will benefit the rich while pro-poor policies will benefit the poor. In order to eradicate poverty, care must be taken to ensure that all policies are pro-poor.”

He said that the centre’s schools operates in Abuja, Warri (Delta State), Port Harcourt (Rivers State), Benin City (Edo State), Abakaliki (Ebonyi State) and Jos (Plateau State) has graduated 2,601 students so far from across the country.

Also, the Deputy Resident Representative to Nigeria, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Lukas Laible, said that the KAS is proudly partnering with Center LSD to enable this Leadership Lectures, held twice a year and has been partners for 15 years, since 2009.

“This week a survey of the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that private Nigerian Household need to spend up to 58% of their income on food alone 58%. This comes while we all experiencing long queues on filling stations, with fuel prices up to 1k in some areas.

“We all know, that almost two third of Nigerians are directly or indirectly affected by poverty. Every day, more people are affected. The two examples shows why there are multiple reasons for this situation. One of it, is a lack of social protection.

“Without social protection, poverty eradication will not be possible. And, obviously, social protection can only be possible with good leadership. The interrelationships between those things are heavily complex. This is the reason why today’s Annual Leadership Lecture, will be that insightful and transformative. It comes to the right time,” Laible said.

He said that everything depends on leadership and that if leaders use their power, to create new jobs and an environment, where the economy can thrive, more people will be able to be employed and get a sufficient income and will, in turn lead to more tax revenues.

On his part, the Executive Director of the Centre LSD, Mr Monday Osasah, said the leadership school was established in 2009 under the auspices of the Ejiro & Otive Igbuzor Foundation and has become a flagship programme of the centre in 2010.

“It is widely acknowledged that leadership failure is a significant factor in Africa’s underdevelopment. However, it has also been conclusively demonstrated that leadership is a skill that can be cultivated.

“The Centre LSD leadership school therefore was designed with this objective in mind: to provide individuals with the tools, knowledge, and vision necessary for transformative leadership, who can drive change both in organization and society; and is free of charge,” Osasah said.