This
was an interim measure introduced early in 2000 to address the problems of
rising unemployment and crime wave, particularly among youths. It was ultimately
aimed at increasing the welfare of Nigerians. Essentially, the primary
objectives of PAP are three- fold:
·
Reduction the problem of unemployment and hence
raise effective demand in the economy;
·
Increase the productiveness of the economy; and
·
Drastically reduce the embarrassing crime wave
in the society. One could glean from government pronouncements that the
targets. Components of the PAP include the following, among others:
·
Provide jobs for -200,000 unemployed;
·
Create a credit delivery system from which
farmers would have access to credit facilities.
·
Increase the adult literacy rated from 51
percent to 70 percent by year 2003;
·
Shoot up health-care delivery system from its
present 40 percent to 70 percent by year 2003
·
Increase the immunization of children from 40 to
1000 percent.
·
Raise rural water supply from the present 30
percent to 60 percent and same for rural electrification.
·
Embark on training and settlements of at least
60 percent of tertiary institutions graduates; and
·
Development of simple processes and small scale
industries. To actualize the objective of PAP several measures were put forward
in the 2000 Budget as well as other policy documents such as;
·
Increase in the salary of public sector workers
that has been decimated over the past two decades;
·
Improving the supervisory capacity within the
nation’s institutions
·
Rationalization of organizations and methods
within the system, particularly that of the existing 16 poverty alleviation
institutions in Nigeria;
·
Encouraging and rewarding all deserving Nigerian
for industry and enterprise.
·
Substantial reduction of avenues for easy and
illegitimate acquisition of wealth; and
·
The launching of Universal Basic Education
Programme, the orientation of the PAP is holistic in nature, and if properly
planned and managed could tame the menace of poverty in Nigeria but inspite of
the broad feature of the programme emphasis seemed to have placed more on the
creation of jobs through public work system.
To this end, avenues were to be
provided for the gainful employment of 200,000 idle hands. This aspect of the
porgramme was designed to provide jobsn for at least 5000 unemployed in each
state. To actualize the programme, the federal government earmarked N10
billion, which was later raised to N17 billion by the senate. No doubt, this
pointed to the government’s commitment to the programme. However, in
implementation, the progamme appeared to be ad-hoc in orientation with little
attention paid to the policy framework. The emphasis on massive construction
and other public work projects made it look like a one-off affair rather making
it a revolving one.
The
programme also paid little attention to the framework of allocation funds
sustainability aspect of the PAP and the needed collaborative arrangements its
success. The political connotation of the PAP served as an important threat to
the success of the programme. The programme was portrayed as the ruling party’s
programme and hence had met with resistance from the chief executive of the states
controlled by other political parties. This was quite noticeable in the launching
of the programme at the state level in February, 2000.
Besides
the PAP also emphasized provision of credit to micro-enterprise and trading to
the exclusion of income and employment generating projects. The programme also
lacked appropriated framework for beneficiary targeting. The timing and phasing
of the direct labour (200,000 jobs) were not explicitly stated.