As the economic fortunes and living standards of Nigerians decline by the day, with 133 of their country’s 211 million population poor, many are forced to leave the country.
However, this 63% of Nigerians cannot afford the funds they need to escape the austere conditions in the country.
Thus, the poorest Nigerians flee the epicentres of poverty in the country to other parts, usually from the rural to the urban areas and from the northern to the southern parts of the country, where poverty is less endemic.
In light of this, something needs to be done to the poverty situation in the northern part of the country. Otherwise, Nigeria may need to brace itself for a caravan of poor and deprived people from the north to the south of the country, like the exodus from Central America to the north of the continent.
For instance, in Sokoto State, Northwest Nigeria, with a population of 6.42 million, 9 in every 10 people are poor. This contrasts sharply with Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, where 7 in every 10 people you see are not poor.
That journey southwards would likely begin from 3 of the Northwest States, namely, Kano, Katsina, and Kaduna States, or the KKK states. The three states are home to the largest population of poor people in the country.
– The poor people in Kano could fill up the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Niger state, and Nassarawa state, the 2 states sharing the longest borders with the federal Territory.
– The poor people in Kaduna state could fill up the entire Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Kogi State, a state which shares the smallest border with the federal territory after Kaduna, Nassarawa, and Niger State.
– The poor people in Katsina State would need 98% of the present population of Rivers State to leave before the state would contain them.
– The population of poor people in the KKK states exceeds the population of the whole of southeastern Nigeria.
– The poor people in the KKK states would fill up Lagos, Ogun, and Osun States, and there still wouldn’t be enough space to contain them, even if the current residents all left.
– The poor people in the KKK states would fill up the entire 6 South-south states except one, Rivers state.
The Politics of Population
When faced with the unpleasant outcomes of monetary and multidimensional poverty, as is the case in Nigeria, responsible governments deploy ‘the politics of population’ to pilot their people, away from the circumstances and consequences of poverty, towards global enviable income levels.