Contrary to what some media report, The World Bank DID NOT list Nigeria as Extremely Poor but said most Extremely Poor people live in China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Nigeria.
This does not mean that those nations are extremely poor. What this means is that since these nations have the largest populations in the world it therefore follows that they would have the largest population of extremely poor people.
For instance, India and China were listed before Nigeria. Does that mean that India and China are extremely poor nations? For the avoidance of doubt, China has the second largest economy in the world, while India is the world’s fourth largest economy.
China, like Nigeria and India is not an extremely poor nation.
Last year, Nigeria was promoted to a Lower Middle Income Nation Status by the same World Bank. Nigeria is not an Extremely Poor nation. The World Bank does not even have such a classification (please see https://data.worldbank.org/
In fact, according to the World Bank, Nigeria’s Middle Class grew by 28% under the Jonathan Administration (pls see https://www.ventures-africa.
Opposition politicians will politicize everything, so be careful with what you read on certain news sites.
Finally, it is sad that opposition political figures and the online news sites that they use to bamboozle the gullible are willing to attempt to damage the image of their country all in a bid to get power through the back door having been rejected by the electorate.
The Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan is on course and on every indices of the annual Human Development Index of the United Nations, Nigeria continues to improve. This is the news that these figures and their propaganda sites want to drown out.
Reno Omokri is Special Assistant to President Jonathan on New Media. He tweets from @renoomokri.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
