Table of Contents
Globalization is the interdependence and increasing integration of economic activities and interaction of humans around the globe (Beck 13). Economies of the nations around the world have become increasingly interconnected over the past one decade. One of the fundamental ways that have facilitated the interconnection of economies is expanded international trade, purchase of stock, foreign aid, and increased foreign direct investment through multinational corporations (Baylis 31). Globalization is, therefore, a way of describing changes in world politics and international economy. In most developing countries, the wave of globalization has caused a new problem which is poverty and inequality. Nigeria, just like other sub-Saharan countries, is deeply rooted in poverty and endemic disparities (Beck 19). This paper seeks to find the correlation between globalization and poverty in Nigeria.
Globalization from its meaning and the impacts it has made in the world is expected to provide sufficient opportunities such as poverty eradication. However, according to the world bank, the benefits of globalization are often exaggerated meaning that it does not yield much. The charges of linking and those of de-linking are correspondingly dispersed where developed nations such as the European Union, the United States, and Japan are highly and genuinely inter-reliant (Bergh 42). For the developing countries, they are mostly independent of each other in economic relations, but highly dependent on industrialized nations. With this light, it is proper to denote that globalization creates winners as well as losers in the economic field and that it entails both winners and losers.
Globalization has reduced poverty
Globalization has provided a level playing field for all nations through economic connections between countries. Since globalization started taking its course like two decades ago, poverty has fallen tremendously, but studies are indicating that inequality has risen in the same ratio. Poverty has been reduced in most countries through incoming foreign investment and export growth in countries like India, Mexico, and Poland (Bharadwaj 53). Despite the positive trend in the economy, currency crises seem to cripple the poor. In Indonesia, after the 1997 currency crises, poverty levels rose up to 50%, and these people are yet to recover from that hit.
The affiliation between globalization and lack is multifaceted because it yields both champs and rabbles. Back to Nigeria, the country has produced top wealthy tycoons in Africa, but the poverty levels are speaking volumes (Oni 12) The poverty level is relatively high, and evidence from surveys show that more than 70 percent of the population in Nigeria live below the poverty line (Díaz-Bonilla et al. 77). Given the huge benefits amassing from globalization, it becomes a matter of concern why 70% of Nigerians are poor, yet the country is rich in resources. Inequality is widespread, and this could explain the reason wealth is accumulated in the hands of a few.
Globalization Causes Poverty
Globalization experts have vouched that it is causing a divergence growth instead of a convergence one in levels of income, both between countries and the people (Ogwumike 61). Assets, income and wealth, are more concerted, profit dividends have increased while the wage dividends have reduced. Labor immobility and capital mobility have mitigated the haggling influence of ordered labor (Lee 22). The increase of redundancy has led to increased casualization of laborers thus increasing persons employed in the informal segment thus generating an extra hoard of toil and miserable wages. Inequality caused by globalization is not only present in Nigeria but also in the wealthiest nations such as China and India. The two countries are in constant competition yet only a fraction of their employees prosper while the rest languish in poverty (Milner et al. 44). It is surprising that most countries in Africa have not developed over the past two decades and this is after agreeing to the advice from the wealthy nations and the World Bank. Millions of people suffer from poverty while the rich are generating more money from cheap labor (Messer et al. 34).
Nigeria is an oil exporting country and given that oil is a lucrative product used all over the world, the country should be fetching enough for development and reducing the gap between the poor and the rich. However, this product has contributed to the political hitches that are in the country. Investors are no longer interested in the country, and those who manage to get into the nation operate their business with the Nigerian tycoons (Le Goff et al. 89). The money will keep accumulating at the top while the poor keep languishing.
In Nigeria, globalization has helped to bring in more investors in the country, though a few people have received employment. Only the highly skilled workers were employed in the field of banking, oil and gas, telecommunication among others, leaving another massive group of unskilled laborers with limited employment (Lee 26). Some scholars argue that Nigeria has been poor for a long time. Immediately after attaining independence, the government embarked on a severe mission of poverty eradication (Bergh 49). That shows that globalization does not cause poverty instead it works with the ground it finds and pushing it to extremes. In the next decade, the gap between the poor and the rich will be more pronounced than it is currently.
Globalization has brought forth an assumption that every country shall prosper by trading with other nations or amongst itself. However, this is not the case in African countries because the trade that is experienced in those nations is that of exploitation by the rich or the foreign investors who pay poorly (Liu 63). For Africa to trust in globalization as a means of eradicating poverty, it has to take a more progressive interpretation of liberalizing services, trade and labor-exhaustive industrial in which African nations are modest. Business is not only the way for African countries to prosper but also a means towards peace-building. Nigeria and the rest of Africa need to invent an\ rational approach in discussions over the minimization of detrimental gas releases, life-saving drugs, intellectual property privileges and the assignment of machineries all geared towards fighting poverty.
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