…also published in Daily Trust
As a topic, poverty in northern Nigeria has been sufficiently addressed in exhaustive intellectual works by economists and other intellectuals who have proffered short, medium and long-term solution proposals. Yet, grinding poverty remains particularly endemic in the region despite being massively blessed with economic potential enormous enough to accommodate individuals’ entrepreneurial ambitions and corporate wealth creating enterprises.
This is also despite the fact that the average northerner is inherently energetic in pursuit of his livelihood, contrary to the unfounded assumption that he is lazy. After all, no one can rightly ascribe laziness to a social stratum that dominates the informal sector of petty but physical energy-intensive yet less rewarding occupations in the country. This is even though being energetic doesn’t necessarily mean being hardworking, because while the former doesn’t necessarily involve intelligence, the latter does necessarily do. And this is exactly where the underlying challenge lies when it comes to addressing the vicious circle of persistent poverty and culture of ineptitude in the region.
