Nigeria: Totally a beggar nation at last

By Dele Sobowale

“A country is measured by the way it treats its children” – Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

“Crisis alert: UNICEF seeks lifesaving N240bn for Nigeria aid projects” – News Report, August 19, 2025 Perhaps because children come into the world from the lower end of the human anatomy, Nigerian leaders have increasingly treated them like fecal waste.

By every measure known to us — economic, social, health, education – the Nigerian child is the most disadvantaged in the world. Infant and child mortality per thousand is the highest; his/her community suffers the worst deprivation from water and power provision and they constitute the largest number of the 20 million out-of-school children – which is the highest in the world. The number has grown steadily with each passing year; while spokesmen for the Federal and State government announce “giant strides” being made by every government.

“If you shut up the truth and bury it underground, it will but grow and gather itself such explosive power, that, the day it busts through, it will blow up everything in its way.” Emile Zola, 1840-1902.

 Despite the conspiracy of governments determined to continue to lie to Nigerians, the truth about how shabbily we treat our children refuses to be buried. It is out in the open everyday for those in power to see and positively address – if they care. It is doubtful they do.

Outsourcing our begging to UNICEF

“We are all aware of the global funding cut that has threatened humanitarian operations across the world. The impact is profoundly crushing at the local level, where conflict, climate change and disease are recurrent” – Francis Butichi, UNICEF Chief of Maiduguri Field Office.

Butichi, understandably, raised the alarm with the North East zone in mind. But, I was in Niger state recently; and after visiting General Babangida to congratulate him on his 84th birthday, headed for Zungeru – against expert advice regarding security. Having gone so far, there was no way I would return to Lagos without conducting a field investigation. There are three old men, acquaintances of over forty years, who would always provide updates on any issue of national interest. Humanitarian operations have moved to the forefront of global agenda since US President Trump ordered closure of the USAID operations worldwide. 

I had written earlier in the year that Trump’s intentions are clear. Trump knows that millions of Africans (mostly Nigerians) and Asians will die and he doesn’t care. He is also aware that the vast majority of the victims of aid cut will be children. That is precisely what he wants. Hitler knew millions of Jews would die before erecting gas chambers. Trump knows millions of African children would perish before scrapping the USAID programmes. 

 The difference in eventual outcome between the Jewish experience between 1933 and 1945 and the African experience was provided by two elements: purposeful leadership in every community and mindset. In every community or country in Europe, Jewish leaders purposefully took steps to save as many of their people as possible – even at great personal risk. The people themselves were determined to live at all costs. There was no ostentatious living by the leaders and the ordinary people lived frugally; everybody was everybody’s keeper. Nobody brought out a begging bowl; asking the international community to donate.

 By contrast, the Northern part of Nigeria, and the Northeast in particular, had been living in poverty since time immemorial. Yet, only few of the leaders – Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Audu Bako had died without corrupt accumulation of wealth. Certainly, nobody appointed or elected Governor had failed to help himself generously to public funds – while the people gradually sank deeper into poverty. None of the current Governors will leave office poorer than when he entered State House.

Why N240bn crowd-funding constitutes sabotage

“When those in office regard the power vested in them as personal prerogative, they enrich themselves, promote their families and favour their friends…”- Lee Kuan Yew, 1923-2015.

Singapore, an island nation, with no natural resources, no large population and no oil has Gross Domestic Product, GDP, is a wealthy nation today because it had Yew as its first Prime Minister. He established the framework for national greatness. Nigeria, a nation with 220 million people, oil and mineral resources and vast agricultural land mass is begging for N240 billion to save the lives of millions of its children because we have never had a Yew as Head of State or President and no Governor of a state who comes close. Yew would never have had a fleet of vehicles numbering up to 40. Yet, former Governor Matawalle of Zamfara State, as poor a state as you can find, had to be told by a court to release the 40 vehicles he carried home when he left office in 2023. He is now a Federal Minister. That should tell all of us something about the character of the individuals in the Federal Executive Council, FEC. With such leaders, how can there be any doubt concerning how we got here begging for N240 billion to save millions of children from starvation, malnutrition, early death and intractable diseases?

 Putting the appeal for N240 billion into context would help to understand the poverty of leadership in Nigeria in general and the Northeast in particular.

A recent report informed Nigerians that a few state Governors spent N1.3 trillion on renovation of Governors’ Mansions and close to N100bn on foreign trips in search of elusive Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, and returned home empty-handed. Erudite Financial Analyst, Bismarck Rewane, recently pointed to the monumental waste of public funds by states embarking on airport projects – which perennially lose money.

From the federal to the state levels, over N5 trillion are deliberately wasted by governments without remorse. Obviously, UNICEF is going around begging on our behalf, not because we lack the means to call Trump’s bluff and save our children, but because our leaders just don’t care. Unable to go and beg on our own, we now have UNICEF doing the dirty work on our behalf. That would have been bad enough if it is the only aspect of our lives in which begging has become our survival strategy. Unfortunately, it is not.

Food crisis looms

“There are people in the world, so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948. 

When Gandhi made that statement, Nigeria was a food sufficient nation. We even exported food. My trip to Zungeru left no doubt in my mind that a major food crisis looms. We will soon be begging for food.

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