Poverty as a cause for insecurity in the North

One of the major reasons why Goodluck Jonathan was defeated in 2015 was the insecurity situation ravaging mostly the Northeastern part of the country, Boko Haram insurgency has claimed thousands of lives, destructuction of properties and caused severe damages to health and education sectors of the affected areas, many people have been displaced from their communities and their source of livelihood destroyed.

There is no doubt that there was a bit of improvement in the fight against insurgency immediately after the Buhari led administration assumed power, as there are no more serial bomb blasts and the activities of the insurgents have been degraded.

But the situation we have at hand now is not much different from the one we experienced in past few years, the recent security challenge of kidnappings and banditry keeps increasing inspite of the measures put by authorities to tackle the menace. The axis of Katsina, Zamfara, parts of Sokoto, Kebbi have become kidnappers and bandits den costing lives of innocent people, burning down of towns and villages and paying huge amount of money as ransoms. The people of these states have continued to mourn the slaughter of their people everyday.

The stories of horrors inflicted on the victims is quite touching, scary and worrisome, its almost on daily basis now that you must catch upon news of either abduction, bandits attack or kidnappings.

Insecurity in Northern Nigeria cannot be unconnected to the failure of leaders and governments at all levels to address properly the basic needs of people, provide jobs, eradicate poverty, create opportunities for people and improve their general well being.

Many Northern elders had already foreseen and warned against the possible security threat facing the region if the ever growing youths population and increasing overall population of the region continued to be neglected, denied jobs, and other basic amenities there and poverty keeps engulfing the region.

There have been reports by National Bureau of Statistics, World bank and other institutions that significant percentage of Nigerians live below poverty line. Many nigerians are living on less than one dollar a day. It may interest you to know larger part of that percentage is in northern Nigeria mostly Northwest states, the award of poorest states have been rotating among northwest states for quite a long time.

The rapidly increasing population in North without any provision for what the population will feed on is another issue to look on,  people especially in the rural areas marry as many wives as they could and give birth to as many children as they desire but unfortunately can't cater for them, hence pushing them to streets to cater for themselves. This is one of the reasons we are having millions of out-of-school children and they are increasing everyday, these kind of children will grow up on their own at the mercy of the environment they find themselves, this alone poses a greater security risk both for the North and the entire country.

All these threats coupled with unemployment rate that is ever increasing poses much greater  risk to the security of the North and the country entirely. As the popular proverb says "An idle mind is a devils work shop"

In conclusion, the solution to insecurity isn't just military action, governments at all level must ensure people are provided with jobs and opportunities, access to good education and qualitative life considering the enormous wealth of resources Nigeria posses, citizens must know and feel the impact of their resources. 

 

Digital Marketing: A gold mine to busineses

 Internet and social media today have become tools not just for educational purposes, fun and entertainment but also a working place and instruments for earning living and marketing products and services. Internet and social media have become unavoidable for most people, from checking for news updates, ordering for food online, sending messages and also business meetings and conferences.

It is estimated that there are almost 3 billion active users on  all the social media platforms and the numbers are increasing everyday as we are coming across new users on our favourite social media platform everyday. The rise in the number of users presents a great opportunity for businesses through social media marketing 

It is this rising popularity and intense use of the Internet and social media that forced businesses to expand their influence into the internet world, even small stores now have online presence where they interact with their customers, get feedbacks, suggestions and recommendations concerning their products or services.

The term used to describe the use of the Internet, social media, search engines and other online platforms to advertise or sell goods and services is called Digital marketing and it is now one of the most lucrative careers because of the rise, demand and pressure on businesses to have online presence.

Digital marketing gives businesses the chance to meet, connect and interact with  new set of customers everyday, adverts on social media reaches audience from a far going through the stress of reaching them physically or looking for contacts.

Another beautiful advantage of digital marketing is that its cheaper than traditional marketing and at the same time comes with higher revenues. Paid social media ads for example can reach thousands of potential buyers within an hour and its cheaper compared TV sponsored advertising or print media adverts. The most beautiful thing about social media marketing is that a user can control the kind of audience his ads should reach, PS5 adverts can be narrowed to appear to only a user below 35 years as most people above 35 years have no business buying PS5.

Digital marketing is real deal for business especially start ups and with the right strategies and techniques in place put in action at the right time, businesses will connect to existing and potential customers and achieve higher revenues.

Good economic policies better than giving out alms to the poor

 There is no doubt that President Buhari's administration remains the best ever in terms of Poverty alleviation and youth empowerment programs, as Minister of Information, Lai Muhammed claims, no government in the history Nigeria strategically brought policies and programs aimed at creating jobs to the teeming Nigerian youths and alleviating poverty in the country.

Several initiatives and programs have been put in place to create jobs for youths, women and other vulnerables . Examples of such programs include N-power in which graduates are eneGEEP of which trader mini, market money and farmers money scheme are part of,  P-YES, Covid Relief funds, Survival fund, NYIF and many more.

These initiatives have undoubtedly have helped in cushioning the effect of economic hardship in the country, some of the beneficiaries have started businesses that can sustain from the proceedings gathered from such programs while others have further improved their investments. The Buhari administration deserves some accolades for this.

Despite the good gesture aimed at economic growth within the masses, little attention have been paid to potential failures that are capable of derailing any prospect of success of the programs. Issues such as after the benefits that should be accrued from these empowerment programs have been recieved which are either given once or for a period of time. Some beneficiaries only enjoy the comfort and security for the period of the program.

Giving out alms to the poor without creating and implementing strong economic policies that will create jobs, wealth and opportunities and automatically lift millions of people out of poverty,  is somehow futile to the aim of eradicating poverty, the desired result might not be achieved in the end.

Youth empowerment programs is one good initiative but good economic policies if implemented would create jobs and wealth for the youths and encourage them youths to fend for themselves and their families as there would be more opportunities waiting for them to harness.