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An Financial Times editorial faulted Nigeria for earmarking nearly $100 million for the space program after missing most economic reform targets set by the International Monetary Fund.

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Awo's political idea was based on the assumption that any town beyond Owo was Igbo or Hausa. Awo was not socialised; he was not a good mixer because he did not have the opportunity, which the secondary school offered. ~TOS Benson, Baba Oba of Lagos

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[ 06, 2001: Message edited by: C. Ikpatt ]

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Ikpatt, abeg, make u think. Nigeria is a lost cause.

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ICO

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Ikpatt
I find it hard to believe that u are really form the East. It's hard for me to believe that u are from Akwaibom (one of our closest and culturally related neighbors) Tufiakwa gi.

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Despite the gains accruing from three years of democracy in the country, the pall of the poor living conditions of the citizens, in the estimation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is yet to be lifted.

In fact, according to UNDP, the lacklustre situation in Nigeria has so deteriorated that it is now the 26th poorest country in the world, a position it also occupied last year in a similar report by the body.

Out of 173 countries whose living conditions are assessed in the report released on Wednesday, Nigeria was ranked 148th behind Madagascar and Haiti.

Since 1990 when the UNDP began compiling the report, Nigeria has slipped four positions, an indication of worsening standards of living of citizens.

This year's ranking places Norway, a country of about four million people, at the top, followed by another Nordic country, Sweden.

Canada moved one place up to the third position, while the United States, the largest economy, dropped one position from the previous year to sixth position.

Twenty-seven African countries successively occupy the lowest positions in the ranking, with Sierra Leone maintaining the last position it has occupied over the years.

Just above Sierra Leone in ascending order are Niger, Burundi, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau and Chad.

The African country with the best living conditions is the Island nation of Seychelles, which occupies the 47th position in the report's ranking.

Seychelles is the only African country placed in the high human development category.

Coming a distant second to Seychelles is Libya in the 64th position, while Cape Verde, Algeria and South Africa are ranked 100th, 106th and 107th respectively.

Of the 35 countries classified in the low human development category, 28 are from Africa, while only 16, out of 38 countries with medium human development are African.

Africa also ranks badly in respect of efforts at achieving the Millennium Development goals set by world leaders in 2000.

The goals include reducing the number of the poor and the hungry by half, increasing access to education and health and reducing child and maternal mortality by 2015.

Most of the countries lagging in progress toward achieving the goals are from Africa, the report shows.

The "extreme poverty" on the continent compares very poorly with Asia, where the number living in extreme poverty was "nearly halved."

Despite the continuing burden of poverty, "aid to developing countries fell; for Africa it was halved in real terms over the decade from $39 to $19 per capita," Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, the report's lead author, says.

On a global basis, UNDP reports that 60 countries are now poorer than 20 years ago and 65 per cent of countries are now experiencing greater inequality between rich and poor.

A central focus of the report is the argument that democratic government improves living standards.

"Although scores of countries took steps towards democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, progress is stalled and some are slipping back to authoritarian rule, putting human development at risk," the report warns.

One example was Zimbabwe's "pseudo-democracy."

The report did highlight the progress made by South Africa, with the "advent of full democracy" in 1994.

"The central message of this report is a simple one: to promote human development successfully, we need to put the politics back into poverty eradication.

"That means ensuring that the poor have a real political voice and access to strong, transparent institutions capable of providing them with the kind of personal security, access to justice, and services from health to education they so desperately need," according to Mark Malloch Brown.

The UNDP measures human development using a series of criteria. These include life expectancy, standard of living, functional literacy rates, number of underweight children and access to "improved water sources."

The UNDP says Africa has made "significant progress" with literacy, though its rate of progress still lags behind that for east Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Benin, it was pointed out, was having greater success than many richer countries in moving towards full school enrolment for all children of primary school age.

The report points out that the AIDS epidemic has been a major obstacle to development.

By the end of 2000, it says, 22 million people had died of AIDS-related diseases and 13 million children were homeless; and, 75 per cent of them were in Africa.

Malaria was identified as another serious health risk to development, with 300 million people globally - 90 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa - affected by the disease.

Armed conflict and military involvement in politics in Africa and the genocide in Rwanda were also identified as major factors in the lack of human development.

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If we can’t bring BiafraNigeria to Space, we will take Space to BiafraNigeria

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