"THE FOUR MAJOR REASONS WHY MANY NIGERIANS ARE EXTREMELY POOR TODAY"

Poverty is primarily man-made in nature, historically and in all ramifications just like slavery. About 80% of Nigerians are extremely poor in 2012 and they survive on $1 to $2 a day living budget. The following reasons are directly and primarily responsible for this mass poverty in Nigeria today in 2013.

(i) The Nigerian national currency (the Naira) was officially devalued in 1986 and this currency devaluation immediately resulted in the massive reduction in the purchasing power of the tens of millions of the ordinary Nigerians in an import-dependent and a 100% consuming economy. This currency devaluation resulted also in the skyrocketing inflation of all the imported goods as well as important general services in Nigeria

(ii) The monthly wages that are paid by the private and the public sectors to the Nigerian workers have remained stagnant for decades despite the yearly rise in the prices of all goods and services. Nigerian workers are paid the typical poverty wages ($112 a month as the minimum wage) instead of the true and the realistic living wages that can make them to live above the national poverty line. These poverty wages in all reality will never allow those millions of the poorly paid Nigerian workers to be able to meet their basic human needs in this life, such as good housing, nutritional meals, decent clothes, transportation, health care, savings and decent retirement in the future.

(iii) Nigeria's past and present leaders continue unabated to loot the treasury and to mismanage our enormous oil revenues for decades without developing the country and diversifying her economy for the much needed economic opportunities for the poor and needy Nigerians. (v) The good paying jobs in Nigeria that can easily lift up millions of these unemployed Nigerian college educated professionals are so few today and they are also limited to the oil/gas, IT, banking, consultancy and telecommunication sectors. There are no economic, financial and educational opportunities for millions of Nigerian youths today for them to be able to secure a better financial future for tomorrow.