Man picks yam on the road to feed his wife, children
Subair Mohammed
* Nigeria is a destiny transformer, a dream killer- Kolawole
* Government is one of the worst creators of employment- Vivian
A man identified as Kabiru Alim walked along the airport road, Oshodi, Lagos, according to him, searching for food for his family and possibly beg for alms from passers-by in the axis.
With thirst to satisfy his hunger, he saw two tubers of yam lying at the middle of road which he hurriedly picked up and took home for his wife to boil for his children to feed on.
Newsexplorersng.com gathered that Alim worked as a clearing agent at NAHCON until recently when his boss relieved him of his job.
Speaking on why he had to pick tubers of yam which he didn’t know its source, he said, “Is it not better to be turned into an animal or even disappear than to live all one’s life in poverty.”
He explained further “My wife and three children go hungry every day without anyone to help. I beg for money from friends and colleagues to the point that they now avoid me. And when God deliberately put these two tubers of yam on my way when all hope was lost, why won’t I pick it up. Call it whatever you want but for me, it is a blessing from God at least my family will feed on this for two days.”
With no means of income, 52 year-old Alim is one out of six Nigerians that become extremely poor every minute.
According to the World Poverty Clock report in 2018, Nigeria had overtaken India to become the country with the largest number of poor people on the planet with 88 million of the country’s population living in extreme poverty with no access to good healthcare, good accommodation and well-paid jobs.
A 46-year-old Tajudeen Kolawole has been job hunting since he graduated from the sociology department of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, It in state in 2000.
Almost two decades of moving from one job interview to another without any luck, Tajudeen who lives in Ishawo, a suburb of Ikorodu, Lagos is married with a wife and two children settled for a marketing job of N20, 000 monthly with a microfinance bank in Yaba, Lagos.
“I picked up this marketing job out of frustration and the need to feed my children and wife. With two kids, a wife and an aged mother, how far can N20, 000 monthly salary go? This country is a destiny transformer and a dream killer” he said.
He, however, appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to speed up on his policies to eradicate poverty as many Nigerians go hungry daily without any hope of a better life.
He said “At the inception of his administration, I have much confidence in President Buhari to turn around the economy of the country. But with poverty everywhere I don’t know what to believe anymore.
The populist programme, N-power is not enough to take the youths out of poverty, Nigerians want a better deal.
We want the government to fix electricity, make better housing accessible and provide good jobs for every Nigerian. It is not that I love the marketing job I am doing presently but I don’t have alternative.
If the government could create the necessary environment, foreign investors would come in to invest and unemployment would be a thing of the past.”
Meanwhile, as more Nigerians are forcefully dragged into poverty net, a public affairs analyst, Vivian Olabode has said getting Nigerians out of poverty requires a strategic and holistic approach.
She said, “The government cannot fight poverty alone, they need to create an enabling environment for would-be investors and put in place policies that would support growth of local industries.
Government is one of the worst allocator of resources. They are one of the worst creators of employment. In fact government has no business being in business.”
She added, “It is for them to create the atmosphere for business to thrive with the enactment of laws that would protect foreign investors. Poverty is a reality in Nigeria. It is an open secret that poverty lives with many Nigerian families where it is difficult to feed and educate their children.”
