CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the
Study
Poverty far from being a condition in
which a person or people cannot afford the basic material necessities, without
which life becomes virtually unlivable, is a multidimensional and multifaceted
phenomenon. Politically, it goes back beyond income inequality as it includes
rights, power relations and access to and distribution of resources. Socially,
it involves the question of human dignity, social relationships and
opportunities. Thus poverty has become a social reality and a global affliction
which virtually seems to have defied a permanent solution. This is why Onah
(2006:314) emphasized that:
The issue
of poverty has provoked concerns and debates among scholars and organizations
in the world. It has become an issue of global interest. It is a socio-economic
epidemic affecting majority of the people in the world, including Nigeria.
Poverty as the Central Bank of Nigeria (2004) and Word Bank
(1991:1) stressed is one of the symptoms and manifestations of
underdevelopment. Nigeria’s poverty rate over the years has continued to grow
unabated. According to the United Nations Reports (1999-2001) Nigeria’s Human
Poverty Index (HPI) was 41.6% which places the country among the 25 poorest
nations in the world. The HPI for some other African countries as indicated in
the reports indicated that Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya Burkina
Faso and Niger has 17.3%, 22.9%, 26.1%, 58.3% and 66.0% respectively.
Additional
data from the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS, 1999) cited in Nwatu,
(2006:295) further indicated that the life expectancy for Nigeria was 51 years,
literacy rate was 51% and 70% of the rural population do not have access to
potable water, healthcare facilities and electricity. The adult illiteracy rate
for Nigeria is also increasing at a galloping rate while the infant mortality
rates for Nigeria were 82 and 191 by 1995 Soludo (2004).
Based on
the data also from Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) , the state by state
poverty incidence in Nigeria between 1980 to 1996 shows clearly high varying
poverty levels among the states of the federation which simply tells us that
the issue of poverty affects every nook and cranny of Nigeria (Soludo, 2004).
In the
post colonial epoch of Nigeria, poverty has intensified by the many years of
military rule and political instability and failure of civilian government
since over 50 years, of independence from the British colonial era, coupled
with poor policy and programme implementation, fiscal neglect, mismanagement,
lack of investment to create employment opportunities that trickle down
economic opportunities, corruption, and misappropriation, are the root causes
of poverty in the country. Although, poverty in Nigeria has colonial inducement
but there are still no holistic policy approach to tackle the problem in the
post-colonial era.
Despite of
the above, the Nigerian state through her government has expressed
determination and effort at uplifting the living conditions of Nigerians,
especially the poor. All of Nigeria’s National development plans since 1970,
have emphasized poverty eradication as a key area of every government in power.
Since 1970, Nigerian governments- military and civilian rules have created
virtually tantalizing array of policies, plans, programmes and projects to
eliminate poverty. These include, Operation Feed the Nation (OFN); Green
Revolution (GR), Directorate for Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI);
National Directorate for Employment (NDE); Family Economic Advancement
Programme (FEAP); Go Bank to Land Porgamme (GBLP); Better Life for Rural Women
Programme (BLRWP); Federal Urban Mass Transit Authority (FUMTA), Nigerian
Agricultural Corporative and Rural Development Bank (NAPCRDB); National Poverty
Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and others which billions of Naira and Dollars
have been invested in by both governmental and non-governmental agencies
especially the donor agencies such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund,
United Nations Children’s Fund, International Development Association, among
others.
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