ANEEJ @ 25 Years We Sustained Fight Against Poverty, Injustice — Ugolor

By Lazarus Zakaa, Abuja

The Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, on Tuesday, disclosed that the organization has sustained a fight against poverty and all forms of injustice for 25 years.

ANEEJ CEO, stated this in his address of welcome during the silver jubilee of ANEEJ public lecture, while flashing back to his aspiration to come up with the organization during his university days at the then Bendel State University, Ekpoma, Edo State now Ambrose Ali University.

Ugolor said, it has been a chequered history of survival of ANEEJ for 25 years and still growing strong in an environment that has been hostile that led to similar non-governmental organizations to go under.

He said: “You will agree with me that this is a landmark achievement in the chequered history of the organization which is worth celebrating, haven survived the past 25 years and still growing strong in an environment where many that started about the same time with us have gone under.

We are indeed grateful to our creator, God Almighty for sustaining us all through these eventful years.

“One of our early breakthroughs was a research conducted to unravel how the States in the Niger Delta regions were managing the 13 per cent oil derivation fund.

This led to the first research report entitled ‘Oil of Poverty in the Niger Delta’ that later became a reference point globally on Niger Delta issues.

“ANEEJ with the support Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBF), thereafter launched the ‘Public Eye on Oil Revenue’ project and used the report as a tool to advocate for institutional framework that will promote transparency, accountability and improved livelihoods for the people of Niger Delta, as well as the replication of the OSOPADEC Model (Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission) in the other States in the region.

“As we speak today, five States in the Niger Delta region have established development commissions backed by law, to manage their 13 per cent oil derivation fund, to serve the interest of oil-producing communities.”

Meanwhile, Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Programme, Maryam Uwais, has refuted alleged World Bank’s report on the poverty index, while giving her goodwill message at ANEEJ’s silver jubilee celebration.

According to Uwais it was not the World Bank’s rating rather it was done by the World Poverty Lab, which they were engaged and the alleged statistics was from 2012, and they used indicators such as area survey, electricity, the position of energy, vehicles parks, and some others, and that is actually representative.

She said: “I want to start by making a small correction regarding the World Bank rating on Nigeria poverty Index, it was not the world bank rating rather it was done by the World Poverty Lab and we engaged them and it turned out that they used statistics from 2012, and they used indicators such as area survey, electricity, the position of energy, vehicles parks, and some others, and that is actually representative.

“We have actually invited them to come back to do analysis of what is happening now and it is important to use other issues that are more relevant to Nigerian in terms of developing countries, in terms of consumption, we know that it is not about, cars or electricity, it is about consumption, income, malnutrition are indicators of poverty rather than what is utilized.”

She further stated that “The important thing for measuring poverty in Nigeria is to adopt multidimensional poverty index as a robust tool to ensure we are able to measure poverty am not denying that there is poverty in Nigeria and the figure is huge.

I am saying we need a tool that is more robust that will enable us actually respond to issues that arise from citizen homes.

“We have been trying to build a database of poor and vulnerable citizens and we currently have 8 million and we have been paying cash transfers and amazing testimonies are coming out, training is also carried out on financial training, how to take ownership of their lives.

She also said that there is the MPI index launched by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, and that government hopes that would be adopted instead of just income and consumption as it goes beyond that, which constitutionally the state and local governments are mandated to carry out projects including primary education, primary health care, agriculture, and others, which the federal government cannot compel them to do.

However, she said, “There is a need for a coordinating agency that targets human capital and enables us to lift our people out of poverty. It is very important because human capital is over an extended period of time before one can see a meaning full end result.

“For that reason, a lot of our leaders have been very oblivious, they tend to see the bridges, roads, hospitals, school, and education, health has suffered because it’s not a legacy that is visible and tangible immediately.

The same thing as the private sector, they tend to see a return on investment immediately.

“Although there are challenges on the field in terms of payment of cash transfers, the CBN will have to review the issue the issue of owning a phone to access the transfer basically because the community usually has the problem of poor network reception, no electricity to charge the phone.”

In his public lecture titled ‘Africa and The Challenge of Poverty’ delivered by Dr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe, at the event, recommended that to address poverty in the continent there is the need to tackle the endemic practice of private appropriation of commonwealth by few elites, conventional approaches should be complemented by community-based initiatives; formulate policy frameworks which put the people and their needs at the centre of development.

Massive investment is a need in core social services sectors including health and education by liberalizing access to these services; leverage on the current upsurge of entrepreneurial engagements especially in the tech sector with a responsive funding policy framework; and engagement of religious organizations with large followings to invest in programmes that meet the physical needs of the people.