By Kanu Obioha
As of 2014 Nigeria was classified as Africa’s largest economy after it rebased its gross domestic product, GDP; Africa’s most populous country, Africa’s largest democracy, and a major exporter of oil and gas. But Nigeria is currently facing development challenges, which it must overcome to fulfil its significant potentials. The statistics are however not very encouraging and it has become imperative that the people in control of the government and economy be told the truth.
Today at least 33 per cent of Nigerians live in extreme poverty. Between 2018 and March 2022 Nigeria led the rest of the world, surpassing China and India with much higher populations, as the country with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty. Already, Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children and those Nigerian children who do attend school have learning outcomes that are among the worst in the world (ten and a half million Nigerian youngsters, mostly girls, are not in school; 98 percent of those out of school are in Nigeria’s poorer North region).
