THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES IN NIGERIA
Poverty is a
situation in an economy where there is inadequate level of income and
consumption, resulting in insufficient basic necessities of life such as health
care, housing, adequate nutrition, adequate clothing etc. The World Bank
Development report (1995, P.14 Vol.2) identified that over 65 percent of the
world’s Populations live in absolute poverty. This phenomenon is rampant among
third world countries like Korea, Indian, Ghana, Nigeria etc., where most
citizens are unable to adequately provide themselves the basic needs of life
like food, shelter, clothing, education, etc. It arises essentially when people
are not engaged in meaningful economic activity. Nigeria is one of
the leading third world nations in which a good proportion of the world’s
poorest citizens live. (Millennium Summit held 6th. - 8th. September 2000 in
New York). The poor citizens in Nigeria are beset with the following
conditions:
High child mortality
Malnutrition
Sickness
Inadequate food
Poor physical health
High Death rate
Illiteracy
Poor access to sustainable water
Following the
United Nation’s Millennium Declaration adopted at the millennium summit held
6th. – 8th. September 2000 in New York, Nigeria has been committed to the
realization of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The MDGs summarized
the development goals agreed on at the international conferences and world
summits during the 1990s, which includes 8 goals, 18 targets and over 40
indicators. These includes:
To eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger
To achieve
Universal Basic Education
To promote Gender
Equality
To reduce child
mortality
To improve
Maternal Health
To Combat
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other Diseases
To ensure
Environmental Sustainability, and
To develop a
Global partnership for development.
These goals were
targets for making measurable improvement in the lives of the world’s poorest
citizens. A participating country such as Nigeria was expected to articulate
policies, strategies and plans which will facilitate the achievement of the
eight millennium development goals, while the United Nation’s Development
system was to work closely with countries to facilitate the nation’s effort to
alleviate poverty.
In meeting the
demand of the UN, Nigeria has embarked on many programmes to ascertain the task
of reducing poverty in Nigeria. These includes:
The Better
Life/Family Support Programmes
The National
Directorate of Employment
Self/Help Group
for Foundation
The Directorate of
Food, Road and Rural
Infrastructure,
etc.
Thus, it is
therefore the aim of this work to examine this situation critically with
respect to poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF
THE PROBLEM
Poverty seems to
have become a natural phenomenon in Nigeria. Successive government in Nigeria
has been noted to have made efforts towards poverty alleviation in Nigeria. It
is obvious that most poor people in Africa and particularly in Nigeria cannot
provide for themselves the basic needs of life. The persistence of poverty in
the world and indeed in Nigeria has made it imperative for the Federal
Government to embark on some of the development programmes like Family Support
programmes, Free Health Services etc. to ensure improved standard of living for
the poor masses.
The researcher,
therefore intend to find out whether the poverty alleviation programmes so far
have actually been effective in alleviating poverty in Nigeria.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The result of this
research work will be of immense benefit not only to policy formulators for
Nigeria government in their current effort to eradicate poverty but also to the
international communities and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) whose effort
laid down in the millennium development goals’ document emphasizes eradication
of poverty internationally.
It will also be of
use to investors, both domestic and foreign, in their investment decisions.
Increased standard of living will result in increased aggregate demand and a
larger market for profitable investment decisions. It will also be of use as a
reference document in the Ebonyi State University library and in the Economics
Department library for further research work.
The individuals,
the curious public or the society at large will also benefit from this research
work, as it will highlight the various causes of poverty and how the incidence
of poverty can be effectively eradicated in Nigeria.
More so, results
from this study would help government in the formulation of policies for
managing the economy in general and controlling poverty in particular.
It will be of help
to other researchers carrying out investigations in similar or related areas in
the generation of information on the existing literature.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTION
The poverty
assessment and alleviation is the main aim of this work. From studies, the
proportion of poor people in the total population of Nigeria has expanded in
recent years inspite of her rich petroleum wealth and the efforts of successive
governmental and non-governmental organizations towards poverty alleviation
programmes. The researcher therefore will tend to find answers to the following
questions:
1. What is
poverty?
2. What are the
causes of poverty in Nigeria?
3. How can poverty
be measured?
4. Has the poverty
level of rural development in the poverty alleviation programmes increased?
5. What efforts
have the government of Nigeria, individuals, non-governmental organizations
made to eradicate poverty in Nigeria?
6. Are the poverty
alleviation programmes achieving their objectives?
7. What are the
problems militating against poverty reduction programmes?
8. What are the
ideal ways of handling the poverty problem in Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH
HYPOTHESIS
This research work
will be guided by the following hypotheses:
Ho: Poverty
alleviation programmes have not significantly reduced poverty in Nigeria.
H1: Poverty
alleviation programmes have significantly reduced poverty in Nigeria.
1.6 OBJECTIVES OF
THE STUDY
The objectives of
this study are:
i) To examine the
concept of poverty in Nigeria context.
ii) To examine the
problem militating against poverty reduction programmes.
iii) To examine
the level of rural development in the poverty alleviation programme has
increased.
iv) The appraisal
of poverty alleviation programme in Nigeria.
v) The possible
ways of alleviating poverty in Nigeria.
1.7 SCOPE AND
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This is an
assessment of poverty alleviation programmes in a developing economy with
particular reference to Nigeria within the sample period 1980 – 1999. This
period was chosen because that was the time poverty alleviation programmes were
applied as tools for improving the economic well being of the poor masses.
The conduct of
this research work has not been without some problems and constraints; these
constraints are likely to make the findings inaccurate to a large extent.
1. Unavailability
of adequate data required for this work.
2. The stipulated
time for this research was considered too short for a topic as wide as this to
be adequately and effectively handled.
3. The constraint
imposed by inadequate finance to enable the researcher reach some important
respondents or collects some vital data.
4. Unwillingness
of some people to divulge information.
5. Inconsistency
of information given by different respondents.
Apart from all
these limitations, all other errors or omissions are precisely those of the
researcher.
1.8 DEFINITION OF
CONCEPTS
The concept of poverty
is multidimensional in nature. However, in this study our working definition is
in terms of low income, inability to provide basic needs of life such as food,
shelter etc. Therefore, poverty could be absolute or relative.
1. Absolute
poverty:
Absolute poverty
is defined as a situation where the resources of individuals or families are
inadequate to provide his basic needs of life such as food, shelter, clothing
etc.
2. Relative
poverty:
Relative poverty
is defined as a position of individual household compared with the average
income in the country, such as a poverty line set at one-half of the mean
income or at the 40th. Percentage of the distribution, and which often varies
with the level of average income.
REFERENCES
Angaye
(1996), “Poverty and Plenty in Nigeria” Rivers Journal of the Social Sciences,
Vol. 2, No. 1 and 2, P54-57
Basdlim
(1990), Poverty, Inequality and Development Cambridge University Press.
Celebrated
Papers for the 1997 Annual Conference of Nigerian Economic Society, Ibadan`
Christian
(1980), “Poverty: Its Remedies in Cameroon Proceeding of the 1980.
Eyong M.
O. (1998), “Inflation, Unemployment and Poverty Alleviation in developing
Economy” the Nigerian Experience, paper presented at the University of Calabar
of the General Conference of CRS Economic Annual Meeting, Calabar May 19.
Eyong M.
O. (1998), The United Nations Documentary.