The many faces of poverty

Some weeks ago, there was a lot of Hullabaloo about what the Emir of Kano said or didn’t say in the speech he gave on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Islamic Education Trust in Minna, Niger State. Several days later, debates and discussions were still raging on in the national dailies and various social media forums about whether or not he was right in linking polygamy with poverty. I enjoyed reading the numerous opinions of people including the ones that were downright tasteless. I realised that most of our problems stem from a lack of basic comprehension and a state of hate for the ruling elite. And we are Nigerians after all, we always have an opinion about something.

On one of my visits to the government hospital in Potiskum, I met a 29-year-old woman who was pregnant for the 8th time. We will call her Bilkisu. She had married at the age of 14 and was the fourth wife of her husband. As I marvelled at the number of pregnancies, she proudly divulged that this would be the 47th child of her husband when she eventually delivered. Her husband was a businessman who sold provisions in his shop at the market. She admitted that feeding was sometimes a problem as he only gave his wives N200 per day for foodstuff. They, however, got aid from international NGOs that had come due to the Boko Haram crisis. I was curious to know the type of help they were being given.

This particular NGO is aimed at eliminating hunger and alleviating poverty. They targeted women who were pregnant and encouraged them to register. Once a woman was confirmed pregnant using a urine pregnancy test, a tab would be opened for her, making her eligible to receive N5000 per month until she delivered the child safely and he/she reached 2 years of age. The women in her local government area (Nangere), therefore flocked out in droves to register themselves. They came out as early as 5:30 am to queue in front of the NGO building. Women were competing with themselves to see who got pregnant first. Those that were on contraceptives stopped while those that were not pregnant stuffed clothes under their blouses and pretended to be pregnant. When they were caught, they resorted to renting babies from those who had!

The price for the hire of babies differed- one child went for N1000-N1500, while twins went for N2500-N3000. A woman would rent out her babies if she had many, to another woman who would pay her after collecting her monthly N5000 from the agency. The women had to report monthly to the office where their children or pregnancies were sighted before receiving their cash payment of N5k. Young girls who were not married would go to their pregnant counterparts and buy their urine for N200 to present at the agency, collect their N5k and disappear, never to be seen at the office again. When the NGO realised this, they started testing for pregnancy using blood collected intravenously on the spot. I heard of a woman whose baby died from malnutrition but refused to have him buried until two days later after she had gone to the agency with the dead child on her back and collected her monthly N5000.

The money is meant as a stipend to augment their feeding – so that the women can have a well-balanced diet during their pregnancy and post-natal period. They are also encouraged to use it to start a trade and as transport fare for their regular antenatal visits. Instead, these women use these funds to buy wrappers and compete with each other on who would have the most lavish naming ceremony. I watched as Bilkisu talked excitedly about the women in her community, the way she gestured with her hands and smiled regularly. This woman was a simpleton and like many lower-class Nigerians, saw nothing wrong with what they were doing.

I asked her if the N5000 per month was enough to feed herself and 7 children well. As if on cue, her countenance changed as she started to lament how she could barely make it to the end of the month. Sometimes they ate only twice a day; on the good days, they ate rice with oil and pepper. Other times, they would eat tuwo (made up of grounded maize) and miyan kuka for three straight days! There was no talk of protein; meat, fish or otherwise. Four of her older children were in government schools while the rest who were aged 5, 4 and 2 years were yet to start. She complained that she paid for their books and uniforms while her husband contributed nothing. She became angry when I laughed out loud. How in the world was he supposed to support 46 children? What was she thinking?

I tried to make her understand that she was not being smart by getting pregnant frequently in order to collect the monthly N5000. I explained to her how the poverty cycle would continue with more mouths to feed and more children to educate. She listened to me half-heartedly as I told her what they were doing was fraudulent. As my people would say, all my ‘dogon turanci’ went through one ear and came out through the other.

Poverty in Nigeria is multifactorial. Lack of education, corruption and wicked village people are our favourite culprits. But what about polygamy? Does it cause poverty? A man who has one shop with a monthly turnover of less than N100,000 has 47 children.

I will let you decide.