Protests: Northerners demanding better governance, what are the economic indices spurring anger in the Region?
By Aminu Abubakar
The nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests, which erupted across Nigeria on August 1, have inflicted a heavy toll on the nation, with lives lost, property destroyed, and economic activities disrupted.
Although the anti-government demonstrations were largely peaceful in the south, it was characterized by violence, looting, destruction of public and private properties, security harassment and alleged shooting to death of civilians by security personnel in Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Bauchi, Yobe, Plateau Abuja and other parts of the northern region, prompting the declaration of curfews in some states.
According to a human rights organization, Amnesty International, more than 21 protesters were shot dead during the protests.
The economic repercussions of the protests are staggering. Nigeria’s economy has reportedly suffered a loss of over ₦500 billion in just one day. This massive economic blow is attributed to the widespread destruction, disruption of business activities, the imposition of curfews in several states.
In this report, SolaceBase examines which economic indices that may have triggered Northerners to protest.
Unemployment is High in Northern Nigeria
We examined the unemployment metric of Northern Nigerian states.
Adamawa state unemployment figure was put at 54.9% by the National Bureau of Statistics multidimensional poverty index of 2022.
This would mean that about 5.5 of every 10 persons in Adamawa state were unemployed as of 2022.
With the spike in inflation figures and economic nosedive, the figure may be more as of the time of this report.
Poverty Levels in Northern Nigeria are Worrying
SolaceBase also examined the poverty index of select Northern states, especially those in Northwestern Nigeria.
Already, the NBS puts the number of poor persons in Kano at over four million (4.6 million) and that’s the highest nationwide, poor persons in Kaduna are 3.7 million, Katsina poor persons are put at 2.8 million, Niger state is 1.64 million, Sokoto is 2.63 million persons, Taraba 1.37 million, Yobe 1.36 million, based on the multidimensional poverty index of the National Bureau of Statistics published in 2022.
The number may be more now given the spike in inflation figures and growing food inflation.
Access to Basic Needs, a Major Problem
Access to basic needs such as clean water, school, and sanitary facilities is a major problem in the Northern region of the country.
The National Bureau of Statistics states that 35% of school-aged children in Kano are deprived of access to school attendance, 52% of children in Sokoto are deprived. In Taraba, the figure is 48%, 44% in Zamfara, 49% in Yobe, 43% in Jigawa, all of these figures are higher than the national average which is 34%.
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51% of households in Kano as of 2022 lack access to sanitary facilities, 61% of households in Katsina, 79% in Kebbi, 75% in Gombe, 86% in Adamawa are all deprived access to sanitary facilities, per the NBS multidimensional poverty data of 2022.
31% of Kano residents are denied access to clean drinking water, the figure stands at 42% in Kwara, 38% in Adamawa,46% in the federal capital territory, 49% in Sokoto, 64% in Kaduna as of 2022.
Food inflation is also not encouraging, standing at 40.87% in June 2924, meaning that what to eat is a problem.
These indices show the frontal economic and socio-economic issues facing Northern Nigeria.
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