On November 26, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly during its 24th session, adopted February 20 as the World Day of Social Justice. The day is globally marked to encourage people to look at how social justice affects poverty eradication and unemployment. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, reflects on the significance of the 2015 edition to Nigeria.
The World Summit for Social Development was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1995 which gave rise to the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. At the summit, more than 100 political leaders pledged to make the conquest of poverty and full employment, as well as stable, safe and just societies, their overriding objectives. They also agreed on the need to put people at the centre of development plans.
Just about 10 years later, the UN member states reviewed the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action when they gathered at a session of the Commission for Social Development in New York in February 2005. They agreed to commit to the advancement of social development, and on November 26, 2007, the UN General Assembly picked February 20 as the annual World Day of Social Justice. It was first observed in 2009.
Since 2009, it has been observed as a day to pursue social development and justice by removing barriers of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.
In marking the 2015 edition of World Day for Social Justice, which has its theme as ‘Ending Human Trafficking and Forced Labour’, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon said: “World Day for Social Justice comes at a pivotal moment for people and our planet.
“Around the world, there is a rising call to secure a life of dignity for all, with equal rights and respect for the diverse voices of the world’s peoples. At the core of this movement lies the need for social justice.”
“This year’s commemoration focuses on the scourge of human trafficking and the plight of approximately 21 million women, men and children in various forms of modern slavery,
“New instruments such as the ILO Protocol and Recommendation on Forced Labour and Human Trafficking are helping to strengthen global efforts to punish perpetrators and end impunity. We must continue to do more. We simply cannot achieve development for all, if we leave behind those who are socially and economically exploited.”
Human trafficking and forced labour
According to International Business Times, human trafficking represented an estimated $31.6 billion of international trade per annum in 2010 and is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of trans-national criminal organisations. It further reported that out of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation while about 21 million people are victims of forced labour which is made up of 11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys.
The total number of child labourers remains high, as the United Nations Children’s fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) acknowledge that an estimated 168 million children from five to 17 years are involved worldwide.
Countries that rank high as source for human trafficking, include Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, China, Thailand and Nigeria.
Nigeria’s poverty level and youth unemployment
Despite Nigeria’s reported rapid growth in economy, the inequality between the rich and the poor continues to get wider and the country’s poverty level continues to rise, instead of reducing, even with the setting up of Committee for Rural Development Strategies and Poverty Alleviation Programmes. Youth unemployment continues to increase annually with the turnout of graduates from the numerous tertiary institutions in the country.
According to 2013 World Bank report on Nigeria’s economy, poverty level remains high in Nigeria, mostly in rural areas. However, poverty rate dropped between 2003 to 2004 and 2009 to 2010, although not as fast as was expected.
According to the report, the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line has increased measurably, even as the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, yet there is no sign of reduction in poverty level.
Part of the report reads: “Job creation in Nigeria has been inadequate to keep pace with the expanding working age population. The official unemployment rate has steadily increased from 12 per cent of the working age population in 2006 to 24 per cent in 2011. Preliminary indications are that this upward trend will continue if there is no job creation.
“Nevertheless, improvements in social welfare indicators have been much slower than was expected in the context of this growth. Poverty reduction and job creation have not kept pace with population growth, implying social distress for an increasing number of Nigerians. Progress towards the fulfilment of many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been slow and the country ranked 153 out of 186 countries in the 2013 United Nations human development index.
“Given the seeming inconsistencies between the national accounts data summarised above and statistics based on other surveys, it is imperative to conduct further investigations and statistical tests to uncover the true growth and development story in Nigeria.
“Overall, 2013 should provide a favourable context for the realisation of key reforms and investments in power, roads, business climate, education, health and agriculture that could generate the non-oil growth, productivity increases and jobs needed to ensure the country’s prosperous future.”
In 2012, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also reported that not less than 112 million (about 68 per cent) Nigerians live below the poverty line, and the North East (77.7 per cent) and North West (76.3 per cent) were ranked highest in poverty rate.
“In summary, statistics on poverty and unemployment in Nigeria, together with other direct indicators of welfare, suggest a story that is rather different from the national accounts data. GDP growth has not been sufficient to support levels of poverty reduction and job creation necessary to prevent a growing number of poor and unemployed Nigerians,” it added.
Several Nigerians support the fact that even as there are signs of successes in Nigeria’s GDP and economic growth in Jonathan’s administration, the growth has not had a corresponding effect on the lives of average Nigerians.
A review of measures that have been taken to tackle poverty are all to no avail, starting from 1976 when General Olusegun Obasanjo introduced the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) programme which many saw as a programme designed to fool, rather than feed, Nigerians, as it never ensured food security as envisaged. Former President Shehu Shagari (1979-1983) also introduced Green Revolution aimed at producing enough food at reduced cost for the citizens and is expected to alleviate the poverty level of Nigerians. Unfortunately, the programme became a failure due to the hijacking of fertilisers, farming tools and incentives meant for the rural poor farmers by the rich government officials.
During the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, he created National Directorate for Employment (NDE) aimed at creating employment, and by so doing reducing the poverty level in the country. But, like other programmes, it was hijacked. The objective of the programme was defeated. Some other past leaders established one programme or another to fight poverty, but the situation remained same and has become a national cankerworm.
After the failure of OFN, Obasanjo’s civilian administration in 1999 formulated a number of development policies such as the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) with the aim of eradicating poverty in Nigeria by the year 2010. Nigerians were assured that the programme would stamp out unemployment and ensure provision of essential social services and adequate infrastructure. But 15 years later, the situation has remained the same.
The failure of lawmakers to enact appropriate laws and regulations to back up the implementation of the programme and sanctions to those who would sabotage the government’s effort in implementing the programme is the overriding reason for the failure of the programme to achieve its objective.
Others reasons that caused the failure of the programme include improper monitoring, lack of evaluation commitment, corruption and greed on the part of the implementers, frequent policy changes and inconsistent implementation, inadequate funding, management and governance problems, and poor involvement of beneficiaries in the formulation and implementation of programmes.
Sadly, our lawmakers continue to increase their remunerations at the expense of millions of poor Nigerians. It was reported that the salaries and allowances of Nigerian legislators are among the highest in the world and yet millions of Nigerians live in abject poverty.
Speaking to TheNiche, a Lagos-based lawyer, Ebun Adegboruwa, posited that one of the reasons for the high poverty level in Nigeria is that the money allocated to poverty alleviation commission is converted by the implementers to enrich their pockets and not for the purpose for which it was meant.
He blamed the failure of poverty alleviation programmes on civil servants, saying that the earnings of government officials are too high.
“Let us produce and not import. As long as poverty alleviation is concerned, the officials in charge are just sharing the money,” he added.
Another analyst who commented on the poverty level in the country said: “Some poor people have visions but no money to actualise their dreams.
“The country is not poor, but most Nigerians are living below the poverty line. The leaders do not have vision and so they lack the cure. Over 30 million Nigerians lack shelter and food security, yet the oil we produce, instead of us enjoying it, unfortunately became a doom. The education and agricultural sectors are suffering even when government officials are embezzling money. Till date, the government is still finding it difficult to increase minimum wage of civil servants.”
A pastor, Patrick Obi, who spoke to TheNiche, said that poverty is rather being elevated on daily basis.
“Both the head and the body are corrupt; not only the government negatively contributed to poverty, but the citizenry too. The leaders are not trying in the aspect of poverty eradication; they are really supporting poverty. If they want to help, they should go for talent hunt among the citizens,” he said.
To succeed on poverty eradication, opined the cleric, there should be proper management of the nation’s wealth, proper monitoring and evaluation of the programmes and projects.
“The entire citizenry, especially the youths, should be empowered. If the youths can be gainfully engaged in vocational activities, with monthly financial support to the unemployed to ease their difficulties, establishment of social amenities and security such as construction of rural roads for the villagers, especially to help the farmers have free movement of their products to the markets in good time, effective schools and hospitals among others, the rate of poverty in Nigeria will reduce drastically,” he said.