I recently watched a video on LinkedIn of a talk by Bill Gates about Poverty and how countries like China and India have taken significant strides towards eradicating poverty in their country.
He also stated since 1990, most of the countries in Asia such as China & India used to account for a higher percentage of poor people in the world. But due to deliberate steps by this Asian countries to eliminate poverty over the past couple of decades, the higher percentage of poor people in the world now come from Sub-Sahara Africa.
According to Bill Gates, the most populated countries in Africa; Nigeria & the Republic of Congo account for about 40% of the total number of poor people in World. That’s about 150million people.
This figure is scary isn’t it, because one begins to wonder what percentage of the people in these countries are actually poor if a significant percentage of their current populations account for the poverty level of the whole world
I don’t know much about Congo, but I can hypothetically claim that 70% of Nigerians are poor with only 10% being in possession of the resources meant for an entire Nation, hypothetically.
Bill Gates blames this high number of poor people on lack of infrastructure, health, security & the inability of the government to make significant changes. He also predicts that these numbers can double by 2050 if nothing is done about the current situation of things.
Funny enough in 1960, China was in the exact situation Nigeria currently is today with 66% of it’s population below poverty level; economic instability, insecurity, poor infrastructure were the order of the day. Alot of poor Chinese people even died of starvation. One may claim that China’s situation was far worse than ours.
Fast forward to 2018 & they are now the strongest economy in the world with the highest number of millionaires & billionaires (in dollars) than any country on Earth.
So what changed? What happened?
A Revolution!
I always like to say that everyone has a breaking point, we all obey Hooke’s law. There is a limit to how much pain & suffering every human can reach before they revolt. It’s similar to what happens to a goat when it is cornered against the wall and has no other option but to push back.
Nigeria is nearing it’s breaking point. Revolution is nigh. But the sad truth is before revolution starts, things have to get worse, alot more worse till the point where we cannot take it anymore & we fight back.
We would overthrow all our tyrants, their emissaries, their systems, their weapons & ideals. We would create a new Nigeria from the ashes of the old one.
Our Revolution hasn’t started yet, but as soon as it does, you’ll know. It won’t be broadcasted on the television or on the radio, but you would feel it in your bones and taste it in the air.
It won’t be swift, but slow & gradual until it finally gets to a point where it becomes apparent and the whole World gets to see us in our true glory.
What do you think?