ABSTRACT
The
subsequent failure of poverty alleviation programme as the desire to break new
grounds necessitated this research work. This research is unit in the sense
that proper evaluation of previous and on going programs were critically looked
into however, there is an increasing need for an understanding of the forces
that lay in the technicalities of alleviating poverty.
Due
to the strategic role the level of poverty play in any government it goes to
show that for any government to claim to have succeeded, the scourge of poverty
may have been kept at it minimum.
To
ensure poverty free society, where the welfares of the citizen will be of
paramount concern this research wishes to provide rare information on ways to
make for a better society while future programme of poverty alleviation will be
possible.
The
project contain four chapters. The first chapter is basically introduction and
historical background of poverty and its alleviation.
The
second chapter is in literature review on poverty
The
third chapter attempted explain some government intervention programme on
poverty and why government effort towards alleviating poverty have recorded
little or no success in Niger.
The fourth chapter of the research is the
conclusion and recommendation. It is my recommendation that government should
as a matter of urgently formulate programme and policies that would help to
alleviate poverty in Nigeria and also encourage and
build institutions free of corrupt practices.
TABLES OF CONTENTS
Title
page i
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Abstract ix
Table
of contents x
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background
to the study 1
1.2 Statement
of problem 6
1.3 Objective
of the study 7
1.4 Research
hypothesis 8
1.5 Significant
of study 9
1.6 Theoretical
framework 10
1.7 Methodology 11
1.8 Scope
of study 14
References
16
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Literature
review 17
References 29
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Government
intervention programme on poverty in Nigeria 30
3.2 Poverty
alleviation in democratic society the journey so far in Nigeria 39
3.3 Why
poverty alleviation programme have recorded little success in Nigeria 42
Reference 46
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Conclusion
and recommendation 48
4.1 Recommendation 48
4.2
Conclusion 50
Bibliography
53
CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Any
attempt made at holistically separating the twin concept of policy and
programme may not yield the desired result as both are more or less intertwined
on this note we shall attempt conceptualizing both terms in the context of this
study.
Be taken by government or private
organisation1 the Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary of current
English define policy as a plane of action, statement of aim and ideas,
especially made by government, political party or business company2
we could want to sum up that policy become a means or guide to carrying out an
action.
A programme is a set of a decision,
strategy, structure design to implement a particular policy’s programme is the
actual procedure, structure in terms of persona, funds, activities, etc through
which a policy is implemented or carries out. A program originated from a
policy3.
We shall therefore find succor in the
thought of Jacob and Flank who in the recognition of this twin concept define
policy as an integrated programme of actions which actor (or group of actors)
is accustomed to or intends to undertake in response to given problem situation
to which he is comfronted4.
In the course of this study the concept
of policy and programmes shall often be used units appropriate place.
Evaluation simple put is assessment of appraisal programme evaluation is any
scope that can therefore be seen as modalities or processes at assessing the
cost of programme, the activities present operations, the implication, impact
performance, the accomplishment, or out comes, efficiency and effectiveness.
Some example of major policies and
programme as put in place to caution the effect of poverty in Nigeria in the post include the
1972 Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s National Accelerated food production programme and the
Nigerian agricultural and co-operation bank, entirely devoted to finding
agriculture Gen, Olusegun Obasanjo, operation feed the nation of 1976. The 1976
Shehu Shagari’s green evolutional programme. The 1986 Gen Babagida’s
directorate of food, road and rural infrastructures (DFRRI). The family support
programmes and the family economic advancement programme of Gen Abacha in 1993
and presently the Obasanjo poverty alleviation programme which at present is
wearing a new look of national poverty. Eradication programme.
The above cited examples have to be
nurtured by different administration and regimes in Nigeria at one time or the other.
Immediately after the civil war, the nation spent and there was the exigency of
resuscitative programme to help put the
nation as it were back on stand. The Gen. Yakubu Gowon administration at the
first time find scour in the national acceleration food production programme
(NAFPP) and the Nigeria
agricultural and co-operative bank. The programmes was geared at accelerating
and finding of agriculture. The NAFFPP later turn out to be a colossal waste
and nothing was achieved.
From the much publicized operation feed
the nation as packaged by the then military strong man. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo
in 1976 to the present fourth republic President Olusegun Obasanjo poverty
alleviation programme tined. National poverty eradication programmes, much is
still left to be desired as to be the extent these various programmes have able
to expunge or reduce poverty in Nigeria.
The fallout of the above programme have
been more of rural underdevelopment characterized by land hunger, unemployment,
social inequalities (in terms of wealth, power, and prestige) declining
agricultureal productivity, poor income, poor health, poor housing and poor
education.
It is most unfortunate that despite the
various programme put in place at combating poverty, the muster called poverty
have become so pervasive due to the lip service, unco-ordination and glorification
of poverty alleviation on the pages of newspapers and news conference with
failure trailing then due to watering or near non existent proper evaluation of
these programmes.
Therefore, it is also responsible that
before funds loans are dishes out to the public especially as it concerns to
N10 billion earmarked to be disabused by the poverty alleviation programme
(P.A.P), the government should do well to take stock of the paste attempt at
alleviating poverty in this country. The point is that when a programme has
been failing each time it is attempted, the ideal thing to do would be to study
the past attempts to sees where the mistakes lie. Herein underpin the context
of this research work.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Owing
to out scope the role of programme evaluation cannot be overemphasized. It is
however pertinent to recognize the fact that poverty alleviation in Nigeria over
years have lived proper evaluation and the pitfalls suffered by subsequent
programmes have therefore lingered.
We shall identify some of the problems
vis-Ã -vis, the subject matter.
1. The
process of alleviating poverty in Nigeria has been a drain on
government resources
2. The
rigors associated with the Nigeria
bureaucracy has further made glaring the crisis on programme evaluation
3. The
mismanagement of funds often involved has only succeeded in impoverishing more
the masses whose neither to poverty was to be alleviated.
4. The
government is seen to have lost focus on the best method of alleviating poverty
5. The
iron of getting surged into poverty instead of alleviating as most Nigerian can
hardly feed on a dollar per day.
6. The
poor masses as leader alike have gradually thrown moral rectitude to the world
for survival.
The
above named problem which have gradually led to Nigeria loosing out on the
basic needs of life finds it root in corrupt practices and insecurity of
programme formulators as policy makers to religiously guide programmes of this
magnitude of it’s place of pride.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The
subject of the research sets out to explore the following goals
1. To
identify the fact that Nigerian are poor
2. To
give vent to program evaluations as the only panacea to organizational growth
3. To
identify the level of poverty
4. To
enumerate efforts put in place over the years of tackling the scourge of
poverty
5. To
critically look at the level of purpose fullness and determination of Nigerian
bettering or prospering the organic unit.
6. To
bring to fore the lapses of set backs that are likely to erupt as a result of
the above measures
7. To
recommend appropriate measure at making futures programme work.
1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1. The
dearth of proper evaluation has been the bane of organizational growth in Nigeria
2. The
public sector grossly lack the modalities and where withal at proper evaluations
of its programme
3. The
poverty alleviation programmes like all others previous policy brought to fore
the ineptitude at effective and efficient actualization of people oriented
policies and programmes.
4. The
poverty alleviation programmes (P.A.P) only succeeded enriching some few
politicians to the detriment of the masses.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The
study become significant due to the urge to as a matter of urgency arrest the
scourge of poverty which include proffering modalities at realizing the set
goal of this work.
Again, programme evaluation being a new
concept in Nigeria.
Must be embraced and strengthen to enable re-engineering of subsequent programmes i.e.
poverty alleviation programmes in future.
1.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The
theoretical framework of this study adopt the system analysis techniques.
Apart from the theories and model of
policies analysis, there are several techniques or tools, which are used the
planning, analyses evaluation and management of policies, and programmers. One
of such theories is the system analysis as used in this work.
System analysis involves the application
of explicit systematic comprehensive and of qualitative analysis to decision
making problems it comprises a reasoned and deductive approach to problem
rewiring decisions particularly government problems and programmes6.
It serves as a base in providing
rational criteria to aid policies makers and programmes managers. The emphases
is therefore quantitative method and analysis.
The
goal is an efficient play. In respect of programmes like the poverty
alleviation programmes, the goals 1 theories favourable ratio between the value
of resource. expanded and benefit obtained.
The inherent problem in the human side
is execution of programmes is very paramount as the spontaneous decisions
reached whether positive or negative effect the programme and it mode of
evaluation. specifically, systematic analysis and objectives…
1. Clear
determination of goals and objectives
2. Determination
of most cost beneficial, cost effective approach in relation to problem
environment and objectives
3. Estimations
of quantitative terms the cost and resources required and benefit of each
alternatives
4. A
criteria for choosing the proffered alternative based on objectives, cost and
benefit
5. Determinations
of alternative means or system for alttaining goals and objectives.
6. A
description of the relationship between objective, alternatives, costs benefit
and problem environment
7. Advise
a public official on most favourable alternative or combination of alternative
based on the above model and criteria?
It
is believed that the system analysis within it’s best way possible favourable
explain the ideal step to step evaluation of poverty alleviation programme in Nigeria.
1.7 METHODOLOGY
The
English Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
defined
methodology light of a body of method, rules and postulate employed by a
discipline8. it could also be the analysis of the principle of
procedures of inquiring in a particular field. Therefore research methodology
simple put in research procedures.
The target of populations here are Nigeria living in a geographical area known as Nigeria. The sane
and data shall be derived from Theroux out of the World Bank and IIIMF on the
federal office of statistics poverty prime for Nigeria: 1980-1996 in draft
National Policies of Poverty Eradication (2003). Evaluation of poverty and
welfare in Nigeria
(1985-92) in Canagarajah, et al (1997) shall also be closely looked into.
We shall take a look at other journals
book and materials written by renown writers and analyst shall be adopted to
butters in clear terms the underpinning of this research work.
The study shall fundamentally adopt the
case study approach with historical lining that is, the forth republic Obasanjo
poverty alleviation programme shall be one basis of evaluating pre and post
factors analysis of eradication of poverty in Nigeria. With this failure and
successes will be front lines in our course of study. With the help of the
system’s theory. The policy and programme of eradicating poverty shall be
viewed as it relates to the output of the political system.
1.8 SCOPE/LIMITATION OF STUDY
We
shall not rest on out Dars in this study until we arrive at a better solution
bedeviling the hyper sanctity of the nature of alleviating poverty in Nigeria. The
range of study shall be between 1970 till date with which we are aware that
even during the oil boom little or nothing dome to build Nigeria on a stead
that is could favourable compete with it fellow OPEC country and possible with
other developed nations of the world, this form the genesis of poverty crisis.
Again the different programmes put in place by various administrations, their
failures, during this period shall also be of permanent concern to this
research work.
Some problem we shall face in the cause
of this work will range from the fact that poverty alleviation programme is
relatively new and we night not find enough indices to write if off as a
failure due to it prevalent decadence resulting from the misrule of the past.
Another limitation will arise from the lack of finance to get enough materials
to prosecute such a major work of this magnitude. The death of relevant
materials in our libraries is another problem we shall likely grapple with.
Even with this limitations and other side attractions, we shall leave no stone
unturned to holistically issues as it cravens this work to a logical
conclusion.
REFERENCES
A.O Ikelegbe, Public policy making and
analysis (Beninjuri publishing Ltd: 1996)p1
The Webster’s New collegiate
Dictionary op. cit
S. Enabunene, W. Idada; Government,
politics and administration; monography series (Benin City Ambik press; 2002)p2
Ibid
A.O Ikelegbe, op. cit p44-45
A.S Igbinosa; Urban administration and
politics, problems and research tools (Akure; Sylva publication Ltd, 2000) p174-175
Understanding and responding to
poverty World Bank poverty net.
The Webster op. cit
Ibid. p 8
The Webster’s New collegiate
Dictionary (Massachusetts, U.S.A; G and C Merrianci; 1973)
S. Enabunene. W
Idada; op. cit p!
A.O Ikelegbe; op. cit p4
CHAPTER
TWO
2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
Poverty
is a widely used and understood concept, but it definition is widely contested
the term poverty according to Gordon (200:37) can be considered to have a
cluster of different overlapping meaning depending on what subject area in
discourse is being examined. For example, poverty like evolution of health is
both a scientific and a moral concept in scientific terms a person or household
is poor when they have both a low standard of living and a low income; a low
standard of living is often measured by using a low income. A low standard of
living is often measured by using a deprivation index (high deprivation equals
a low standard of living) or by consumption expenditure (low consumption
expenditure equals to low standard of living).
According
to Gordon (2002:27-38) the scientific concept of income can be made universally
applicable by using the boarder concept of resources instead of just monetary
income. Poverty according to Gordon can be define as a point at which resources
are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that
the poor are in effect, excluded from ordinary living patters, customs and
activities. As resources for any individual or family are diminished, there is
a point at which there occurs a sudden withdrawal from participation in the
customs and activities sanctioned by acceptable culture. The point at which
withdrawal escalated disproportional to falling resources can be defined as the
poverty line or threshold (Gordon 2002:38).
Mamman
(2001:171) on his own part define poverty as a state of human deprivation of
basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, health, and public services
in a political, economical and socio-cultural system, conditioned by lack of
access in the basic factors of development in, the situation of people below a
poverty line-income threshold, determinate by the ability to afford an adequate
diet and other minimal necessities. Hence poverty according to minimal is a
phenomenon associated with contemporary socio-economic policies, political,
economical and cultural process which are all related in a very complex way.
Poverty has being brought about because of the changing patterns of income
distribution, the widening gap between the rich and poor nations and between
the urban and rural areas as well as between men and women (Mamman 2002:169)
Coudouel
et al (2002:29) refer to poverty as a situation when individuals or household
do not current needs. This definition is based on comparison of individuals,
consumption patterns, education or other attributes with some defined threshold
below which individual are considered as being poor in that particular
attribute.
According
to Enemuo (2002:18) almost every one of Nigeria regime since independence
proclaimed itself as committed to promoting rural development and poverty
alleviation. This can be adduced to the fact that majority of Nigerians live in
the rural areas and therefore, these rural development programmes would serve
to uplift of living condition of this majority. Improved rural productivity
through rural programmes will also strengthen national food security and
enhance foreign exchange earnings, through local production of industrial raw
material and the export of surplus. It will also reduce the trend in
rural-urban migration as well as reducing poverty.
At
this juncture, it is necessary to examine these programme, their objective,
implementation, obstacles and reasons for partial or total failure. This will
provide us aureole towards making necessary comments as to whether or not they
have appreciable impact on poverty reduction. Among the various policies and
poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria by past and present regimes are:
Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), the Green Revolution and Directorate for Food,
Road and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI), the Better Life Programme (BLP), the
people’s Bank of Nigeria (PBN), the Community Bank (CB) the Family Support
Programme (FSP), the Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP), the River
Basin Development Programmes among others. And more recently the National
Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and National Economic Empowerment and
Development Strategy (NEEDS).
What
then are the objectives of these poverty alleviation programmes and to what
extent have they been achieved? What has been the cost to governments? And have
these costs brought about the desired benefits.
For
the OFN, it’s objectives included self sufficiency in food production,
attracting unemployed youths from the urban to the rural areas, creating
employment opportunities for young school leavers, providing better income for
farmer, encouraging professionals into farming, reducing demands for foreign
exchange and thereby enhancing the value of the Naira among other objectives
although the above objective were clear but they have hardly been realized. For
example, a government that wanted to enhance food production and achieve self
sufficiency could not provide enough fertilizers and insecticides to reach the
rural farmers. Also, government did not provide adequate extension service
workers to go into the rural
Areas to advice supervise and teach the
farmers on the application of fertilizers and seedlings. The idea of attracting
unemployed youths from the urban areas did not materialize because the period
of implementation coincide with an increased growth in the construction
industry, where these youths easily got salaries employment. Also, the
implementation did not conform to the objective stated, as the decentralization
of the administration system which sought to involve state governments in
decision making did met do anything to integrate farmers in the rural areas
into the scheme. Also, the state government lacked the necessary training
programme for modern farming systems making it impossible for the farmers to
get acquainted with the planned process of this policy. The lack of training
means that human resources were inadequate. Moreover, material resources were
also not adequate. Finally, this programmes failed largely because project
planners lack necessary imagination and motivation to see it through coupled
with the fact that enough extension workers were needed to supervise the
farmers which the planner failed to provide.
As
for the other programmes, the patters identified in the OFN were also
noticeable in them. The Green Revolution objectives which were similar to those
of the OFN also failed to materialize because the Green Revolution was met with
some formidable constraints. For instance, the programme was the programme was
bedeviled by official ned-tapism and excessive bureaucracy. Loans were met
released on time and when released, they were already off- season. There were
no collaterals for funds released and unfortunately, most of those who get
loans were city dwellers who camouflaged as farmers, denying these poor rural
dwellers the opportunity offered. The loans received were then pumped into
non-agricultural project or plainly wasted in ostentations living (Ojo 1999).
As
Ikelegbe (1996:217) posited, a critical appraisal of rural development
programmes of past governments, especially from 1960 to 1997 revealed three
main strategies: community development, agricultural extension and integrated
rural development. However, the development programme has not constituted the
solution to rural poverty and neglect because of low level of assistance, and
absence of integration and coordination.
Heidhues
1996 seen poverty as a state of inability to live a decent life. There are two
approaches of measuring poverty, namely: welfarist and non-welfarist. The
different between the approaches lies on the importance attached to the
perception of the person as well as his well being. The welfarist use the
relative approach to measure poverty. This approach uses the concept of
inequality and the relative differences between people of the same society.
This approach identifies a certain number of basic needs to be satisfied by the
poor in order to nourish and enhance themselves. Poverty can also be seen as a state
of low-income household, a vulnerability to face income variable and lack of
economic capacity (Hulme and mosley 1996).
Poverty
can be perceived as not having sufficient to eat lack of portable water,
malnutrition, poor housing conditions high rate of infant mortality, low life
expectancy, low educational opportunities inadequate health care, lack of
income generating activities (IGA) lack of economic infrastructure and
inability of actually participating in decision making process. These will lead
to a state of powerlessness, helplessness and despair and this, the inability
to protect oneself against economic, social, cultural and political regulation
and marginalization. This state of being can lead to violence, high crime rate
such as armed robbery, theft, thuggery band other deviant and indecent ways of
life.
Poverty
can be seen in absolute or relative terms, it can be chronic or transient.
According to National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) document (2001)
absolute poverty is a condition of lack of physical minimum requirement for a
person or household to the extent that those affected are no longer in a
position to live a life worthy of human dignity. Characteristically, absolute
poverty has to be with the vicious circle of deprivation. That is, low economic
activities lead to low productivity, which lead to low income and brings about
low saving and investment, which consequently leads to low standard of living.
Relative poverty is a state in which the individuals or household ability to provide
goods and services is lesser than that of other individual or household
abilities (Ojo 2002). Mass poverty is associated with the vicious circle of
deprivation at the natural level. It is associated with unemployment and under
utilized resources, which in most cases is common with underdeveloped
countries.
The
need for poverty alleviation programmes was seen as a measure of development
and to provide and guarantee decent livelihood to the vast majority of the
populace that are poor. Government’s efforts should be focused towards the
provision of basic needs such as water, shelter, clothing, access to good
health and good road, qualitative education and better employment
opportunities. The government should understand in measuring level of poverty
is a determinants in measuring the success or failure of any government.
REFERNCES
Gordon D and P Spicker (2000) (ed)
Crop international glossary of poverty New
York 2ed Books p. 37.
Mamman M. (2002) Poverty environment
and development. Issues and perspectives in the content of the Lake Chad Basin.
Ikelegbe A (1996) Public policy making
and analysis. Benin City Uri publishing Limited.
Coudouel A. S, Hentschcl and T. Wodon
(2002) Poverty measurement and analysis Klugman (ed) core techniques and
cross-cutting issue: a source hook for poverty reduction strategies wishing ton
D.C the Work Bank.
Enemuo F 2002 Transition and
challenges of rural development in Nigeria:
In Onucha and Fadakmte (ed) transition policies in Nigeria 1970-1999 Lagos Malt house
press Limited.
CHAPTER
THREE
3.1 GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION PROGRAMMES ON POVERTY
IN NIGERIA.
In
Nigeria,
various development strategies have been put in place by the government to
enhance the living standard of its citizens. Not until recently programmes have
not been specifically meant for poverty alleviation, but to a great extent
glared towards enhancing the standard of living of Nigerians, including the
poor. This became imperative as a result of upward trend in the level of
poverty in Nigeria.
Retrospectively, government intervention
started before independence when the colonial government inaugurated ten years
development and welfare plan for the country. The objective of this policy was
to enhance the citizen welfare through development of infrastructure. Shortly
after independence, strategies for rural development were aimed at improving
agricultural productivity through farm settlement schemes, state owned
plantation, provision of subsidized infrastructure, integrated rural
development (provision of road, water farm inputs, extension services, credit
agricultural reassert)24 during the first (1962-1968), second
(1970-1974), third (1975-1980) and fourth (1981-1985), National development
plans emphasis was on how to bring about economic growth that could trickle down
in the form of higher standards of living for populace including the poor. The
plans among other had the development of agriculture at its main stream, as
contained in its polices and programmes. This approach is various because the
government in addition to the industrialization process, embarked on massive
production of agricultural products, such as cocoa rubber, oil palm and
groundnut etc. in order to enhance the country foreign earning ability and
provide raw material for foreign and local industries. The achievement of the
national development plans was minor due to corruption and greedy nature or the
ruling class. Instead the increase in food production, there was massive
importation especially of consumable items like rice and poultry products as well
as fabrics or textile materials.
The federal government or Nigeria further
demonstrated its interest to better the living condition of the rural poor by
establishing integrated rural development in 1976. The government equally
established a department of rural development, river basin development
authorities and in the same vein, launched the operation feed the nation. These
are testimonies that revealed government commitment towards enhancing the
living standard of the people, including the poor and vulnerable through food
production. This thinking influenced the involvement of development agencies,
such as cooperative societies and rural credit institutions. In order to
expedite rural transformation, the rural dwellers were expected to participate
actively in the initiation and execution of projects. However, the integrated
rural programme was unpopular because of its limited coverage. The approach
also failed to encourage the real involvement of rural dwellers. like
integrated rural development, operation feed the Nation equally had production
of food by individual and institution through government supply or necessary
inputs at a subsidized price, but inefficient distributions, misallocation of
resources and corruption jeopardized its overall goal, thereby creating a
situation where individuals enriched themselves to the detriment of the
farmers. As a result of the above, the programme was replaced with Green Revolution
in 1979, with the objective of transforming rural areas through massive food
production. The Green Revolution programme suffered the same fate with the
Operation Feed the Nation due to administrative inefficiency, selfish interest
individual attitude and value that marred the overall objectives of the
programme.
In 1985, the federal government under
the administration of Ibrahim Badamosi Babenjida (IBB) react the need to adopt
programmes aimed at improving rural infrastructure food, encouragement of rural
handicraft, and employment creation in line with these views, the following
agencies among others were created the directorate of food, roads and rural
infrastructure (DFRRI) the National Directorate of employment (NDE) and Better
Life for Rural Women (BLRW). Among these agencies DFRRI and BLRW included the
provision of rural leader roads, rural water system and national on-farm
storage programme that encouraged productive economics and agricultural
activities in rural areas and encouraged contribution of labour, time and
material by the communities (complemented by grants from DFRRI, local and state
government)25 this programme however could not satisfy the need and
aspiration of the people, particularly the poor and the vulnerable. The short
comings are apportioned to many players in the field (federal ministries of
finance, National planning, works and housing state governments and their
ministries and 589 local government authorities). These government
paraphernalia killed the ability for quick decision making that is needed to
manage such a national programme of a great magnitude. Poor funding, project
abandonment and poor marketing strategies by manufactures adversely affected
agricultural processing of goods, and road construction equipment as produced
by the indigoes technology were all responsible for the death of the programme.
In the same vein, Better Life for rural women equally suffered inadequate
funding, despite its wide courage. It failed to pay attention to women in the
rural areas but rather concentrated on what to be a fashion parade for state
governor’s wives and the local governments chairman wives and women that does
not seem to have rural inclination, coupled with a poor coordination.
In 1989, the federal government of Nigeria
in its commitment to strengthen the economics base of the poor income earners
established peoples bank. The bank provide rural credit to those who usually
lack collateral to obtain credit from the conventional commercial banks. This
approach was a right step in improving individual through access to jobs
opportunities and government concern fro neglected rural dwellers. The
activities of people’s Bank were limited by poor funding and the procedures for
granting loan to individual without collateral security made it difficiutl to
recover such loan granted.
Olusegun Obsanjo on assumption of office
in 1999 took upon himself the task of redressing the problems of poverty, as a
demonstration of his commitment towards the achievement of this task, he
established poverty alleviation programme. Government desire to alleviate
poverty was borne out of the conviction that incidence of poverty and
unemployment has assumed a dimension that is socially, economically and politically
unacceptable. The immediate objectives of the programme were: to stimulate
semi-skilled and unskilled labour in productive activities to engage the
unemployed in direct activities as a veritable means of reflecting the economy
and to minimize rural-urban drift through the improvement of rural communities.
This programme was short lives due to inefficiency and corruption at high
level. As a result of this, it was replaced with National Poverty Alleviation
Programme (NEPEP) with the same goal of enhancing the living standard of the
poor through job opportunities. NAPEP was structured into three sub-departments
in a hierarchical order. That is, mandatory attachment programme (MAP) for the
graduates unemployed being at the top hierarchy, youth empowerment scheme (YES)
for school leavers and capacity acquisition programme (CAP) for the artisans
MAP beneficiary was entitled to N10,000 monthly with soft loan after completion
to training and apprenticeship, respectively. This programme has helped to ameliorate
rural poverty, as participants or beneficiary were drawn on the basis of local
government. Though it will be too early for a proper evaluation of the
programmes, but time will permit to say that the selection of beneficiaries
were based on party affiliation. Also, corruption and lack of appropriate
coordination may hamper its goals in the nearest future if the available
features are not presently corrected. Though programmes and policies were
initiated by past and present government, (military or civilian), it was
revealed that bad governance as exemplified in government inability to identify
the need and aspirations of the people, contributed a great deal to their
failure. Project priority needed by the people, lack of accountability of
executive and government official, shortage of manpower to manager and
implement government programmes is a bane of rural development suffice it say
therefore, that rural poverty in Nigeria is qualify a product of bad
governance. One may make haste to ask what is the way out? This will form out
next point for discussion.
3.2 POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY: THE JOURNEY SO FAR IN NIGERIA
Nigerian
as a nation is naturally endowed with both human and natural resources. with
these endowments if they are properly harnessed, the society and economy would
have been properly develop and at the same time enjoy improved standard of
living. But in the midst of plenty, poverty is still very prevalent in our
society. That is why effort or policy made by the government to achieve the
goal of poverty alleviation cannot bee to much.
On the journey so far in Nigerian for
example, effort have been made by different regimes (military and civilian)
through initiation of one form of programme or the other geared towards
reducing poverty. This has become necessary because statistical data have shown
that “the poverty rate of the population increased from 29% in 1980 to about
70% by 1996, it was estimated that more than 70% of Nigerians lived in poverty;
gender composition of the primary school enrolment was below 50% for female.
Other poverty indication such as life expectancy is about 44 years, infant
mortality at 77 per 1000 while maternal mortality at 704 per 100,000 live birth
among the highest in the world (NEEDS 2004). Some economics policies such as
liberalization and privatization as well as deregulation are getting mixed
reactions from the public.
“The social infrastructure has not
recorded any remarkable rehabilitation as in areas of road-network electricity
supply, portable water supply, health services delivery, school, railway
services and employment opportunities etc. the condition of these sectors is a
far cry from what Nigerian expect” (National Freedom, June 205).
Poverty alleviation ought to show or
manifest as a part of the dividends of democracy. What is there to show is the
huge sums of money spent to provide it.
“…majority of people living in both rural
and urban areas of Nigeria
are wallowing in abject poverty, living fro hand to mouth in feeding. Shelter,
health care, education, security transport and clothing, not to talk of luxury
matters such as delicacies, electronics electrical communication, publicity and
information gadget …” (Ibrahim 2005).
The present democratic government, which
came on board in 1999, has made some effort to complement and harmonize those
programmes that were previously designed to alleviate poverty. Such programmes
are national commission for mass literacy (1997), it was established to promote
adult literacy. In 2000, the National Poverty Eradication programme (NAPEP) was
launched. Their activity is to co-ordinate implementation of all federal
government (FGN) poverty eradication programmes. And the same year, the
universal Basic Education (UBE) was launched. It was established essentially to
provide compulsory basic education for all up to level of Junior Secondary
School year 3 (JSS 3).
3.3 WHY POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES HAVE RECORDED LITTLE SUCCESS IN
NIGERIA
The anxiety shown by various regimes in Nigeria with
regard to how to reduce the problem of poverty, when juxtaposed against the
dividends accruable from the programmes, is a far cry. That is to say, so much
concern has bee expressed about the problem, so much resources have been
committed in the process, but so little seemed to have been realized.
A number of factors have been advanced
as to why poverty reduction programmes have not recorded desired result in Nigeria.
According to Adeyemo and Alayande (2001) the problems which bedeviled last
poverty alleviation programmes include:
i.
Poor programme conception implementation and weak institutional support
ii.
Lack of focus, some of the programmes were renamed, and for repackaged under
new agencies without necessarily changing their modus of erandi.
iii. Duplication of function/severe
overlap among the programmes. This created the problem of isolating the
specific impact of such programmes. For example FEAP, NACB, NACRDB to mention a
few.
iv. Poor funding majority of the
programmes relied on funding from external bodies such as UNDIO, UNDP, UBCI
v. Some of the programmes lacked legal
backing for example, the BLP was not set up by any enabling act(s). thus, direct
budgetary allocation could no be made to facilitate it activities.
In a similar vein, Nigerian Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS, 2004) noted several major factor
hindering the success of government effort at reducing the level of poverty
these include
-
Poor co-ordination
-
The absence of a comprehensive policy
framework
-
Excessive political interference
-
Ineffective targeting of the poor
leading to leakage of benefits to unintended beneficiaries
-
The unwisely scope of programmes,
which caused resources to be thinly spreads across to many project
-
Over lapping functions leading to
institutional rivalry and conflicts
-
The absence of sustainability
mechanism in programmes and projects and
-
Lack of involvement of beneficiaries
in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (p. 34)
To
cap it up, the Central Bank of Nigeria
(2003) on the basis of several empirical investigations of activities of
poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria concluded as follows:
In spite of the huge resources devoted
to poverty alleviation, deterioration in fiscal discipline, corruption,
political instability, and inconsistent policies undermined past efforts, thus
making poverty alleviation in Nigeria
a paradox (p. 8)
REFERENCES
M.P Todaro Economic for a developing
World. An introduction to principles problem and polices for development (3rd
ed) long man NY, 1992 p. 158.
N. Iman Daily Trust, ‘On poverty
alleviation and sustainable development in Nigeria’ downloaded from the
internet, www.Trustonline.com/poverty on
28/4/2003 p.i
Crop working paper No 5, 1992, in A.
Onibukun and A Faniuan st African settlement studies and development monograph
series Ibadan
1995, p. 72.
EO. Akeredolu-Ake, Pirate, foreign
investment and the underdevelopment of indigenous entrepreneurship in Nigeria,
in Gavin Williams (ed) Nigeria, economy and society, 1976 p. 45.
Adeyemo A and Alayande T. (2001) The
impact of poverty alleviation programmes on entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.
Research report No 32 Ibadan development policy centre.
Aigbokhan B.E (2005) The battle for
justice and the poverty of nations luagural lecture No 22 delivered at Ambrose
Alli University on Thursday, 24 February p. 11
Central Bank of Nigeria (2003) ‘An appraisal of
federal government poverty (NAPEP) eradication programme Bullian vol. 27 No 1
Jan/March pp. 8-18.
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.0 RECOMMENDATION
In
the light of the major funding of this research the following recommendation
are put forward.
1.
The government should as a matter of
urgency formulate well articulated poverty eradication policies with focused
institutional arrangement and well coordinated programmes implementation
strategies, monitoring and evaluation within the context of evaluating good
quality of life for the people.
2.
The anti-corruption policy stance of
this administration can only be achieved of give mentally is addressed through
proper management of the natural wealth and through implementation of the
reform agenda.
3.
There should be good governance
maintenance culture. That is, a system that permeates equal opportunity, rule
of law, transparency, accountability, protection of individual lies and
properties, open and competitive political participation for the people.
4.
The various poverty alleviation
programme and institutions which have become moribund should be revived and
made functional.
5.
Power generation and distribution
should be improved upon. An uninterrupted power supply will have a multiplier
effect on the economy that is beyond all imagination, create millions of jobs,
lower cost of production, encourage both domestic and foreign investors to
invest in Nigeria.
All these will no doubt reduce drastically the poverty level in Nigeria.
6.
The government should provide an
enabling environment that could encourage private non-government organization
in the provision of goods and services to the less privileged ones.
7.
A good leadership focus through
thorough democratic process should be encourage in order to minimize,
corruption, deprivation and mismanagement of public funds that are geared
forwards poverty alleviation programme.
4.2 CONCLUSION
It is oblivious that both past and
present administration have directed effort to improve the livelihood of
Nigerians. It is also obvious that resources required and spend so far is
enormous.
If the only success determinant for
measuring the performance of the various programmes so far implemented is the
degree of poverty in the country it would not be difficult to conclude that
they have all failed woefully since the number of people has been on the
increase. For any programme reels tinning to poverty alleviation to seed in Nigeria, a
transparent and honest person and integrity must stand to protect the millions
of Nigerians that are poor. It is important for any government who is trying to
eradicate poverty in the country to create an enabling environment that could
assist the poor to access additional fund to what they have, with lower
interest rate.
Without government interning through
central Bank to make commercial banks lower their interest rate and relax other
conditions for credit facilities to the poor, economic development and rate of
poverty will continue to worsen. Government and other business organization
should assist in the area of employment of qualified people. More so, our
educational system should be reeducated towards self-employment and not
white-collar jobs. This over time will contribute towards graduate unemployment
in the country.
The government policies on poverty
alleviation should be properly rooted to function as a tool for alleviating
poverty among people. The problem had been that of the insecurity of purpose
among the political leaders as they continually pauperize the citizen to
maintain servant master relationship for this objective and eradicating poverty
and hunger by 2015 not to end up as a mirage this kind of master- servant
relationship should not be allowed to continue.
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