Better Days
I opened my eyes to see the spirogyra decorated white ceiling of my room. It was not intended to be that way. It was usually just white
Ripple Effects of Poverty: Hunger
A young boy leaning on a corrugated Zinc fence.Photo by Ben White on Unsplash Every time I think of poverty in many African communities, I can’t help but mull over how this poverty is experienced on various levels. Thankfully, there is a term that effectively explains this: multidimensional poverty. According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), “Multidimensional poverty encompasses the various deprivations experienced by poor people in their daily lives – such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standards, disempowerment, poor quality of work, the threat of violence, and living in areas that are environmentally hazardous, among others.” This definition effectively captures the thoughts that race through my head when I think of poverty. It is simple to just equate poverty with low income and end it there. But what are the ripple effects of this low income on the individual? On their families? On the opportunities they get? On the possibility of leaving their social classes and improving their lives? So, the concept of poverty is so much more than how much a person earns or what global benchmarked income they earn less than. For this piece, I want to focus on one direct ripple effect of poverty: hunger. World Vision postulates that, “In the whole of Africa, 257 million people are experiencing hunger, which is 20% of the population.” In essence, 1 in every 5 people on the continent are hungry. To bring this home, this isn’t saying that 1 in 5 Africans in the continent have a desire for food, which is one of the definitions of hunger. This statistic shows that if you see five people today, there is a possibility that 1 of them has chronic hunger, meaning they may have diets that are either inadequate in quality or quantity, or that they have no food at all. This is a problem. Apart from the physical effects of hunger – which (by the way) are many – there are ways that hunger negates a person’s dignity. Because hunger is such a primal need, people who are hungry do not ‘have shame’, which is the Nigerian parlance for self-respect or worth. This is why it isn’t surprising that many people who are in this category of chronic hunger are prone to doing any (and every) thing for a meal. Years ago, when I was a student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, I went to a restaurant which students called, Zinc House. Now, ‘restaurant’ is a bit of stretch. This place was a makeshift building with corrugated zinc for walls and roof, and wooden benches where people could sit across each other for their meals. It was a really popular restaurant among students and members of staff, mostly because they served lots of food at a really cheap cost. You were not assured of hygienic meals, but you could get a plateful for whatever amount of money you had. If you wanted food for 200 Naira, you were sure to get it. If you wanted something for 120 Naira, you would have your food. This place didn’t just have its student/staff traipsing in and the restaurant staff that served them. It also had some almajiris – a collection of young children who earned their meals by begging – hanging around ready to scavenge leftovers for themselves. On the last day I was there, some guy who came in didn’t finish his food after a fly perched on it. He had not gotten to the thick chunks of meat he had ordered when he abandoned his meal. As soon as it was established that he was done eating, the scramble by these almajiris to get his food took the taste out of my mouth. In their squabble, they turned the food unto the dirt floor and proceeded to eat from the ground. (It is important that I mention that the floor was not just ‘dirty’: it was made of compact clay, thus… dirt floor.) Seeing children fighting themselves to eat off the floor…a floor that was dirty by virtue of it being made of literal dirt and having been stepped on by people from all kinds of places…broke me. I got up, called the smallest child in the group and gave him the rest of my meal. I then hurriedly left this place that displayed their lack of dignity and my shame at being unable to do more. Every time I think of poverty, especially as it relates to hunger, that image comes to my head. And while it isn’t the only one that does, it is the one that always gets me depressed. Every human being deserves dignity and respect. That dignity is lost when people degrade themselves for a chance at getting food. Let me emphasize that: no one should ever think that they need to fight for food; or eat meals that are leftovers; or scrape off the floor to get at their meal; or sell themselves; or any number of things that make them feel less worthy. It is one of the reasons I am fully in support of the Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2, which aim to end extreme poverty and hunger in all forms by 2030. We have about 10 years to achieve this. And be assured, the task is daunting. There are many factors that prevent Africans from having access to the food they need to starve off hunger: communal clashes like the herder-farmer clashes in many parts of Nigeria; multi-pronged issues like drought, famine, conflict and instability in places like South Sudan and Central African Republic; and deeply entrenched corruption by many leaders of our African countries…to mention a few. Ending extreme poverty in our continent is going to require a lot of cohesion by governments and the people. What are some low-hanging fruits that can accelerate this goal? The major one I can see now is the basic respect and protection of all people, regardless of their social status. I believe this is one of
Bad Roads and Their Connection to Poverty: A Case of Leleyi Gwari Community in Abuja
Cars struggling on very bad road.Image Credit: Guardian Nigeria Newspaper By Ojonugwa Yahaya from HipCity Innovation Centre In every given geographical area occupied by a population of people, either large or small, the first thing that indicates the presence of said people is an access road. Road is very important to human development and the importance of it cannot be over-emphasized. Roads make a crucial contribution to economic development and growth and bring important social benefits to every society. Good road networks are of vital importance as they provide access to agricultural market, opens corridors to employment when businesses spring up along paved roads, attracts social, health and educational services to a given area, therefore serving as a good catalyst in fighting against poverty. Roads open up shadowed areas to new business opportunities and stimulate economic and social development. For these reasons, road infrastructure is the most important of all public assets. Across many states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, the lack of access roads, especially in agrarian communities, contributes to the huge post-harvest loss experienced by farmers. The deplorable conditions of many of our roads in the hinterlands inhibit farmers access to markets, therefore impacting on food supply and as well as discouraging farmers from cultivating in commercial quantity. This is the exact scenario Leleyi Gwari community people find themselves in. Roads in Leleyi Gwari. They Get progressively worse when the rains come in.Image Credit: Ojonugwa Yahaya BACKGROUND (LELEYI GWARI) Leleyi Gwari is an indigenous agrarian community under Pai ward, located in Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory. Leleyi Gwari has existed for over 50 years before the geographical space known as Abuja became Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory. The people of Leleyi are predominantly the Gwaris’, though they have other ethnic group dwelling among them which includes the Gbagyis’, Nupe, Hausa, Tiv, Ibos, Ganagana, Birom, Bassa, Angas, Mada, Fulani and Tarok. Leleyi Gwari has a population of over 4000 people. The common agricultural practices in Leleyi are crops planting (Maize, yam, rice, pepper, okra, soybean, watermelon, tomatoes, guinea corn, cassava, groundnut, melon, and bene seed); Animal husbandry (fish farming, cattle, goats, poultry and sheep). In the over 50 years of Leleyi Gwari’s existence the people have not enjoyed good access road, and this has placed huge limitation on the marketability of their farm produce. It is hard for interested buyers of agricultural products to access the community and those that managed to find their way to the community tend to price the products at very low and discouraging prices, making a mockery of the sacrifices and work done by the farmers. The option of moving their agricultural produce to the market such as Kwali and Gwagwalada is another hard nut to crack due to the bad nature of the Leleyi road and when they manage to take the product to the market, the cost of transportation takes a huge chunk of any profit they make from sales as transportation charge is high due to the bad road. This is everyday experience of the Leleyi people and other farmers across many communities in Nigeria who go through the rigors of farming to make food available to the nation. Many of them live in poverty; barely making enough profit after all the hard work to take care of their needs and that of their family who are dependent on them. According to the people of Leleyi Gwari, they have written letters to the Kwali Area Council on several occasions seeking for intervention but no response till date. Poor road infrastructure in communities does not only affect production and distribution of farm products. It also negatively impacts the development of rural areas generally. The poor road condition in Leleyi Gwari community makes it difficult for the farmers to have access to intervention aid and agro-services such as training and education, fertilizers, improved seedlings etc. The construction of well-paved standard roads in Leleyi Gwari community will have direct impact on the productivity of farmers; because of the ease in transporting farm products to markets and quicker access to farms output would largely increase. With good access road, agricultural extension workers can easily reach the people with information and agricultural innovations that will help the farmers prevent and control disease outbreaks, improve crop growth, new improved seed varieties etc. Research has shown that farmers who have access to high yielding crops that are resistant to pests and diseases tend to produce more and avoid losses, but how will rural farmers such as the leleyi people become aware when they cannot be reached? Good access roads have multiplier benefits and the absence of it also have multiplied consequences, it is on this grounds that the people of Leleyi Gwari community are calling on the Kwali Area Council, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to commence plans for the construction of the Leleyi Gwari Road which also serves as a feeder road to neighboring communities.
Poor People Work Harder…for a Whole Lot Less
Men watching from a gate.Image: The Daily Maverick I live in one of the poorer communities in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja. Like most of the communities surrounding it, Jikwoyi is a densely populated area. Because most things – accommodation, food, clothing and transportation – is much cheaper than other areas in the Federal Capital Territory, it is not unexpected that there are more people who live around these areas and places like this. One of the first things you notice about the neighborhood is that it pulses with activity and life; almost like a hive. People are always busy. Activity starts as early as 5am; earlier in fact. People who want to beat the eventual daily traffic jam leave as early as possible. And trust me…you don’t want to be in that traffic situation. So as early as 5am, you begin to see lots of cars heading out to town. Because the number of buses allocated to our part of town isn’t nearly enough to cater to the number of people in the area, many private vehicle owners pick up people as they head out to their ‘8-4’s or ‘9-5’s. It is an opportunity to make an extra N500 or N1,000; depending on the size of the car. Shop owners also begin to open up for the day’s activities. Most notable are people whose businesses are in the food sector. They may not be catering to the early birds – unless they sell things like Akara, puff puff, massa or other such fried foods – but come 9am, most of the rush to head out would have begun to slow down and people who work in the community would need to eat. And when school is in session, students pile the roads on their way to getting an education. They need to be catered to by provision store owners who sell biscuits, drinks, sweets, and other pacifiers children take these days. Or it could be to provide books, pencils and pens, or other necessities for school. Soon after, other businesses open up for the day and Jikwoyi becomes a full hub of activity. It is not hard to tell that the soul of the community is driven by work. What is surprising (to me) is that this work doesn’t seem to let up until late at night when I return home, which is usually between 8 and 9pm. In fact, if anything, it seems to pick up at night. Lights blazing, open grills, loud noises as cars jostle to pass the narrow roads, hawkers and street vendors calling out their ware and people generally conversing in louder tones because of the racket of everything else that is going on is how you would describe Jikwoyi at night. The sounds of chaos and the smells of all sorts of food mixed with putrefying drainages and gutters greet you as soon as you return to the community. Jikwoyi at night is bedlam. But it doesn’t end there. There is an active night market scene in Jikwoyi. You can buy almost anything at the Jikwoyi Market from between 6pm and 9pm when some people begin to close up shop. So if you had a craving for Ogbono soup at 7pm, you wouldn’t have to worry about satisfying your craving because, not only are there a myriad of restaurants that sell the soup, the market will be open if you are the type to want to cook yourself. I learned that many people who owned shops in the market – and the entire stretch of shops that are at the Jikwoyi junction and surrounding areas – are also those leaving the community at 5am to do their day jobs. To make this clearer, many people in this community leave for their offices in the day time and return home to their businesses to make a little extra cash before they go home at around 10pm (or later) so they can wake up again and set out for work at 5am the next day. For these people, the rat race seems a bit unending. In spite of all these, neighborhoods like Jikwoyi are home to some of the poorer people in Abuja. It is a mix of the extremely poor, people just above the red line of poverty and the aspiring middle class hoping for one move away to wealth and knowing that they could also be one move away from poverty. These types of neighborhoods are replicated everywhere in Nigeria and many parts of Africa. But it gets worse. Neighborhoods like mine are only considered ‘poorer’ neighborhoods because they are in the Federal Capital Territory and because they pale in comparison to the suburbs at the city center. In reality, there are many more neighborhoods with people living in extreme poverty than there are neighborhoods like mine. And the people in these neighborhoods have to do even more to survive. It is not hard to see that these are some of the most hardworking people in the community. They have to be up earlier and usually not by choice; they have to deal with some of the worst traffic as they leave for work; they juggle at least two jobs, with very little increase in income; they come back home through even more traffic at the end of the day; then they come home to their businesses in a quest to make even more money. In spite of all the work and time they are putting into their day jobs and night time businesses, many people in these types of neighborhoods will never get out of the poverty that they are mired in. The big question is…why? For one, the economy isn’t helpful. Inflation means that the prices of goods and services is constantly going up. This wouldn’t be so bad if salaries are increasing concurrently. But they aren’t. Which means that you have to spend more out of the steady pay you are getting. Think rent, water, electricity, feeding, healthcare, spousal and
