The Federal Government was on Tuesday in Abuja challenged by poverty alleviation and civil rights experts to "declare a state of emergency on joblessness" by translating the nations Gross Domestic Product into a poverty reduction tool.The Democracy and Governance Adviser at the United Nations Development Programme, Prof. Samuel Egwu, and the Director of African Programme, Open Society Justice Initiative, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, gave the advice at a seminar organised by the Global Association of Female Lawyers with the theme, "Access to justice for the poor."According to them, the nations GDP has not translated into reduction of poverty over the years.They stated that although Nigeria was rated as one of the fastest growing economies on per capital basis, unemployment had continued to cast a shadow on the country.Odinkalu argued that the level of unemployment in the country was worrisome and called on the government to declare a state of emergency on joblessness.According to official figures, Nigerias GDP grew by 6.96 per cent in 2009, 7.87 per cent in 2010 and is expected to grow by 7.8 per cent this year.While the Minister of National Planning revealed that by the third quarter of the year, the GDP had reached 7.92 per cent, the Central Bank of Nigerias Monetary Policy Committee expressed optimism that the growth forecast for the year was achievable based on emerging market standards.Similarly, the online edition of the Economist magazine listed Nigeria as the 12th fastest-growing economy in the world on a per capita basis.However, Egwu said, "Despite these impressive statistics often supported by PowerPoint presentations by technocrats, it has not translated into lower unemployment rates, higher standard of living, increasing middle class, reduced poverty and improved Gini Coefficient ( a measure of the gap between the rich and the poor)."According to him, the consequence is that the poor are becoming more susceptible to crimes as defined by the criminal justice system, leading to more arrests of people who commit such crimes, overcrowding of cells, the inability of the police to cope with investigations and the burden on the courts to dispense justice.Egwu called on the government to empower the masses so that they could also have access to justice.He cited a recent survey carried out by the World Justice Project based on a new Rule of Law Index that ranks nation-states in terms of access to justice.The project, he said, scored Nigeria among the countries with the lowest ranking in terms of access to justice.According to him, access to justice is not a function of the elegance of the justice system but the formal rights of citizens inscribed in the constitution and upheld outwardly by those in power.
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