Is Nigeria’s Culture responsible for her Poverty and deepening Inequality?
Right from pre-colonial period, the West often blame Africa for their endemic poverty and deepening inequality dichotomy. “They’re lazy. They’re not working hard enough. Their cultures are retrogressive”, Western scholars often conclude. If culture is the totality of a people’s beliefs and attitudes; values and norms; their views and expressions, how come our cultures have been tagged retrogressive and branded barriers to sustainable development?
In Nigeria, household size ranges from ten (10) to twelve (12). Nigeria remains the most populous country in Africa, the seventh globally, with a current estimated population of over 198 million. By 2050, Nigeria would become the third most populated country in the world. When you examine the map of Nigeria and her population distribution, Northern Nigeria soars as the most populated region. What does this portend for development and quality of life?
Tragically, poor families living on subsistence farming or low income assets tend to have more children. With very large household sizes, poor families usually have a very difficult time providing the basics for all of their children. Maybe, just the eldest son would end up in school. The girls marry at a young age or engage in street hawking and begging, without a proper education. In the next generation, these young girls grow up without the education and skills that they need to help their own lives, their own children, and the national economy.
If we consider examples of societies that moved rapidly from high household sizes to much lower sizes, China is one good example. They did that through One-Child Policy. And while it’s been controversial, please notice the implications of this policy. What has happened is that in a very short period of time, family size has come down rapidly. And parents have invested intensively in their one or sometimes two children. And so, within one generation, the levels of education, health, nutrition of Chinese young population has soared. This played an enormous role in China’s very rapid economic development. Other countries e.g. Korea and Japan, made rapid transition to lower household sizes and the results are glaring.
In Nigeria today, especially in the Northern geopolitical zones, we have a frightening population size, huge numbers of very young children who are out-of-school. Nigerian government is struggling to peg it at 8.6 million children while experts insist that 12 million school dropouts could still be a conservative figure, cosmetically termed out-of-school children. How are they going to be educated? How are they going to get the health care and the nutrition that they need? My opinion suggests every need to reduce our household sizes to “bearing capacities”.
Fanatically, many Nigerians treat family size — wives and children, as a function of culture and religion. Some claim that they have been commanded to take up more than three (3) wives with no restriction on the number of children. How can such commandments be obeyed without recourse to available resources especially as it affects education, nutrition and healthcare? Most times, these cultural attitudes are hardly challenged for the fear of committing heresies.
Another cultural attitude that deeply influences patterns of economic development is attitudes towards women. Do women have rights? Are women participating in the labor force equally? Are there discriminations, culturally imposed boundaries, limiting women? In analyzing these questions, culture is never innocent. Once again, as with household sizes, there are big differences around Nigerian geopolitical zones on attitudes towards women or gender in a broader sense.
Social discriminations based on gender are fully with us in Nigeria but our women have not stopped fighting. In contemporary Nigeria, two women are exemplary: Obiageli Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu each in the Southern and Northern hemispheres, respectively. In many circumstances, they are role models for women, especially young girls. Women face profound barriers to political participation and economic emancipation. In all, aspects of our culture are culpable.
As contented by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of The University of Queensland, a country that is running only on half its human resources is bound to fall behind countries that are empowering all of their citizens, women and girls, as well as men and boys. This is one “hard” lesson that Nigerian government has refused to address. Gender-based discrimination is a sweeping challenge in Africa’s most populous nation.
Fortunately, in terms of gender equality and equity, Rwanda is a perfect example for Nigeria and the world. It may surprise you to know that Rwanda’s Parliament is not only more than half women but has the highest proportion of women in its parliament in comparison with any other country in the world. Rwanda has made astounding progress in reducing child mortality. It is making big progress in improving education. Dramatically, Social conditions have improved. While there are many factors responsible for Rwanda escaping extreme poverty, the role of women in the parliament has played a significant role.
Nigeria should desist from being vulgar in her status as the Giant of Africa. Nigerian government is particularly a talking government, more or less like a talkative. Every year, #WorldPopulationDay is celebrated. Instead of a period for national reflection on population dynamics, public officers have turned it to one big fanfare where scarce resources are carelessly allocated and squandered.
Notwithstanding, it is no longer fashionable to place every responsibility for change on the government. The time has come for a paradigm shift, which will see individuals initiating social changes while collaborating with policy- makers (government). If our culture does not change us, why don’t we change our culture? I feel sad that Nigeria is yet to show spirited commitment in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, #SDGs. I feel it is time we challenge some of our obnoxious cultural practices and attitudes (as highlighted above), even at household levels.
Author: This piece was written by Ani Nwachukwu Agwu. Nwachukwu is a rural development specialist. He works with Connected Development. Please contact him via twitter, @NwachukwuAni or nwachukwu@connecteddevelopment.org
