Nigeria has been ranked as the worst performing country in West Africa in the global effort to defeat inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the Federal government has been charged to invest massively in public education, health and social protection, to tackle poverty, joblessness and other inequalities.
The 2021 Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index, CRII, which ranks Nigeria last among the 16 countries of the Economic Community of West African Countries, ECOWAS, and second to the last in Africa (45th out of 46 countries), based its verdict on the nation’s very low spending on education, health and extremely limited and poor quality public services, amid high taxation.
The CRI Index which was developed and delivered through a partnership between Finance International and Oxfam International, with inputs from independent experts, ranks Nigerian government 157th out of 158 countries on commitment to reducing inequality in areas of education, health and social protection; taxation; and, workers’ rights.
From the Index, Nigeria which has the 5th highest income inequality among the 15 ECOWAS countries including Mauritania, was “woefully unprepared as COVID-19 hit, spending only 5 percent of its budget on health and leaving more than 40 percent of Nigerians with no access to universal health services.”
It’s performance as “weak on all three pillars, but particularly bad on anti-inequality public services and labour rights”.
In a response to the development, the country Director of Oxfam Nigeria Dr Victor Ahonsi, charged the Federal government to invest massively in public education, health and social protection, to tackle poverty, joblessness and other inequalities amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the 2021 Tax Summit held in Abuja, the Country Director, Oxfam Nigeria, Dr Vincent Ahonsi, said Nigeria’s poor commitment towards reduction of poverty and inequality was worrisome.
Ahonsi, who expressed concerns over the findings in the CRI Index said that fiscal accountability is key to national development, even as he observed that Nigeria should make its tax system more progressive.
“We are concerned by the findings in the current index which shows that Nigeria is the worst performing West African country in tackling inequality going into COVID-19 pandemic. “Nigeria’s health budget (as a percentage of its overall budget) is the third lowest in the world (3.6 percent) and 40 percent of its population do not have access to healthcare services,” he stated.
