WHY ARE WE SO POOR? (Part 1)

‘It’s impossible to win, unless you are very lucky’, wrote Linda Tirado in an essay “Why Poor People Stay Poor” (author of Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America). This cannot be far from the truth, in most of the books I read about how to make money, most authors suck in inspirations from their background, the catch is most of them are either rich or making money. You hardly get a book like that from a very poor person telling you why he’s still poor. Now how can poor people, I mean real poor person, make money?

Most writers agree however that people become poor because they are ‘unstable’. Tirado argued that ‘it’s assumed that we’re not unstable because we’re poor, we’re poor because we’re unstable’. Rich people can be unstable too; does that status deny them from making money? Being unstable is a form of poverty. You just wouldn’t get anything done; the constrain, inability, lack of confidence, skills, requisite knowledge, lack of focus due to hunger or happiness all these are chains that binds you to your present status quo.

In real life situations, global poverty and inequality are watered down and less spoken of in boardrooms and seat of power, reason? Capitalism!

For products to sale and profit made, there must be army of poor people to work for the production, push for the sales and most often consume the items of the rich capitalist.

Anup Shah,’Causes of poverty’, September 28, 2014, claimed that “Almost half the world-over 3 billion people- live on less than $2.50 a day”. In naira terms this is about N552.5 the minimum wage at the national level is N18, 000 while most States pegged it at N12, 000. Can a family of a husband, wife and two children feed on this earning? There is the medical bill, school fees, house rent, water (most homes buy their drinking water in Nigeria), and electricity. In Yola, a jerrican of water costs N20, in Sokoto N25, in Ekiti N25, in Bayelsa N40.  

“Is it enough to blame the poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development?”These are questions Shah wants us to ponder about.
Educational curriculum of most African countries does not capture the use of necessary technical, managerial and entrepreneurial skills needed in the present competitive century. Students are graduated with no knowledge of cutting-edge technologies useful in modern competitive world. It also very incisive to ask, does anyone need to be educated to be rich or be successful in business?

In a commentary aptly carried by ‘the Leadership Insider network’ an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. In an answer to “What advice would you give someone looking to start their own business?” Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, had this to say,’...anyone starting a new business is to forget everything they learned in business school. Or better yet, don’t go to business school. Why? Because right now we are going through a once-in-a-century transformation in business that is throwing all the existing rules’.

Youths are somehow fashioned to lean towards white collar jobs than to venture into sweaty production processes and agro businesses. Which often times, do not get the required backing from the banks or legal and necessary support from the government. As such, people are left to their whims and caprices, and mostly to luck. In Nigeria, for instance, 70% of young people graduating from universities would rather go into paid jobs or government employments. This figure is even higher in the Northern part of the country.
Without all the existing business rules, without luck, without enabling environment for prosperity, would be recipe for failure; because combating poverty encompasses all the elements of political, economic, and social equality. This inequality made sure that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, except with a little dose of luck some would seem to break the jinx.

What a poor person needs is to scratch a living by making his livelihood a bit higher than he could. Giving out more hope can ignite happiness to poor households than even giving out financial credits or loans. Free medical care and free education for the poor would help save more money for the family.

Charity organisations and other financial institutions have been working alongside governments to reduce poverty and increase income level, what I find frustrating is lack of sustainability, inability to really help out with no strings attached and finally the ability to impact on the poor the know-how in regenerating wealth; how a N5, 000 credit can become    N7, 000, how a mango tree can become an orchard, etc.

Atiku Abubakar, former vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was said to have built his first house at the age of 15, was it luck or good planning? Tony Elumelu made some billions in 21 days, sheer business acumen or luck?
...to be continued.