Nigeria as a rich nation is blessed with human, material and natural resources but, why do we witness prevalence of absolute poverty?
Geographically, Nigeria is endowed with sea to the South, forest in the Western region, Sahara to the North and savannah in the Middle Belt with River(s)Niger and Benue flowing from up North to the South in addition to many other small rivers and streams. Also there are swampy areas, sandy areas, hills and high plateaus/mountains including arable farm lands covering large lands mass of 923,768 square kilometers. This land area is double the size of France, four times larger than the size of Great Britain and twenty times larger than Luxemburg.
This nation which is said to be most populous black nation in the world has a teeming population of 170million people or so, which makes us to be twice the size of France and Great Britain in terms of population.
In fact, one out of every four black persons in the world is a Nigerian!! Well, Nigeria has many qualified people when it comes to education, who excel within and outside the country. Nigeria has so many tertiary institutions. In fact we have the largest numbers of universities amongst African countries.
However, Nigeria has tremendous economic prowess that would have impacted the lives of her citizens. For example, it produces cocoa, groundnut, palm kernel, timber and other agricultural products.
Among also in the production of minerals like: gas, tin, bauxite, coal and columbite etc.
Above all, Nigeria produces more oil than any other African country which qualifies it to be the giant of Africa and also the sixth world largest oil producer. Hence there is a huge inflow of petro- dollars into the Nigerian economy.
Although, it is unfortunate for the nation to solely depend on oil revenue, relative to untapped mineral and other resources, the petroleum revenue could still suffice, to cater for the basic needs of the common man. We are potentially very rich but, the paradox is the heart- rending situation of poverty within the masses.
– Okoye is a student of mass communication, Federal Polytechnic, Bida