Nigerian arm of Amnesty International, on Tuesday night took to twitter again, apparently blasting the Federal Government over the staggering number of people living in abject poverty, whose ranks continue to grow helplessly.
Describing the country as a “land of inequality,” AI regretted the fact that the leadership does not seem to care about this reality.
Nigeria, it continued, is a nation where although more money is budgeted and spent yearly across all tiers of government, “more people slide into the squalor of poverty.”
“Poverty is not innate. Inequality is a result of injustice. Every human being deserves to live with dignity,” it continued, stressing that “the link between poverty and injustice implies, few cornering for themselves that which belongs to all.”
Nigeria is believed to be home to 86m people living in extreme poverty, while corruption and tax fraud amongst the rich make life hellish many who are daily pushed further down the poverty ladder.
Also, new global index, produced by Oxfam and Development Finance International puts Nigeria at the extreme bottom in a list of 152 countries ranked by their “commitment to reducing inequality”. Nigeria’s social spending (on health, education and social protection) is, according to the report, “shamefully low” and “reflected in very poor social outcomes for its citizens”.