IMPACT OF POVERTY REDUCTION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Many people when they hear or read about the word poverty will automatically think and look at poverty as being simply a lack of money. This is partly true but for a better understanding of poverty it is necessary to go beyond this simple or common sense, definition of poverty. Poverty is much more than a simple lack of money. For example, if you were stranded on a desert island and you had several thousand dollars or pounds in cash, while those around you had things like food, clothing and shelter would be in poverty? You could not eat your money, nor could. Your fellow inhabitants might not even want your money, particularly if they believe that a rescue is not eminent. In such a situation , lack of money means equal poverty. This is, however, only part of the stor

with regard to poverty yet in order to understand poverty and inequality, we must probe beneath surface reality and go beyond the common sense explanation which is simply another for cliché.

Definitions of Poverty

There are two different ways in which researchers define poverty; Absolute poverty and relative poverty.

Absolute poverty refers to the situation in which a person lacks those things that help to sustain human life. The lack of basic human needs such as food, shelter and clothing. This form of poverty was once quite common in countries such as Britain and American but has since declined, particularly since the introduction of the welfare state. This form of poverty is still prevalent in many third world countries.

pattern of life that exist within a given society at a given time. For example, if you cannot afford to have a cooked meal then you may not be in absolute poverty but you are certainly in relative poverty.

Poverty is not new but at each mention, it stirs a lot of misgiving. This is because it has a very devastating influence on its victims. It reduces the social and psychological prestige of its victims. Poverty is a condition of being poor. This could be evident even amidst plenty because there could be reeking poverty as a result of lack of knowledge to translate potentiality into practical creativity for the benefit of society.

In other words, if there is a poverty of something, it therefore means that there is a lack of it or the quality of it is extremely low. The foregoing shows the picture of our beloved country, especially when a deep reflection is made on the Nigerian question and the Nigerian condition. It is

also so pathetic in the sense that the country that

is potentially rich in oil and gas and other natural resources cannot boast of putting food on the tables of its citizens in fact an average Nigeria is said to be living below one dollar. Researcher has it that the foundation of most social vices and corrupt practices both in high and low places is caused by poverty. At present, Nigeria is rated as one of the poorest country of the world, a country with abundant resources both in human and mineral resources. It is as a result of this and other maladies that are experienced by the citizens of the world especially the third world countries that the United Nations in year 2000 in a meeting popularly referred to as millennium summit in the United State of America, arrived at the millennium development goals, (MDGs). According to UN the 189 members of this organization by 2015 are supposed to have met these goals. The nine goals have the “reduction of extreme poverty and hunger” as the first goal to be met by the stipulated year.

As a member of the United Nations Nigeria keyed into the MDGs and subsequently produce a policy document called the national economic empowerment and development strategy (NEEDs). This development goals specifically has the following actionable goals.

Wealth Creation

Empowerment generation

Poverty reduction

Valve re-orientation (NEEDs DOCUMENT, 2008)

The NEEDs as a national policy was intended to meeting some of the goals of the MDGs especially poverty reduction. In assessing the performance of MDGs and NEEDS in Nigeria especially when it relates to “poverty reduction” one can say without fears of contradiction that millennium development goals have performed below the expectation of Nigerian. It is at the backdrop of this realization that this paper is set to examine the MDGs and

poverty reduction as it geared towards bringing sustainable development in Nigeria.

1. Statement of Problem

Over the last ten years poverty has been very

real in Nigeria and quality of the average Nigerian citizen has progressively nosedived. It is so endemic in Nigeria that people have started seeing it as part of their lot in life. It is at the backdrop of this that this paper is set to examine the MDGs and poverty reduction as it is geared towards bringing sustainable development in Nigeria.

This study therefore addresses some specific questions as outlined below:

What factor is responsible for high level of poverty in Nigeria?

What has been the impact of various poverty reduction programmes in Nigeria?

Will Nigeria really reduce poverty by 2015 going by the current situation in the country?

1. Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study is to analyze

and evaluate the rate of poverty in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, the following specific

objectives will be address in the study:

To identify the factors responsible for poverty in Nigeria

To assess how successful the various policies and programmed initiated to reduce poverty in Nigeria.

To ascertain the level of whether Nigeria will be able to meet millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.

To recommend policy response and suggest how to reduce poverty in Nigeria in order to meet MDGS and ensure sustainable development.

1. Significance of the Study

The essence of any meaningful research work

lies in its significance and usefulness to humanity.

This study will provide a conceptual frame work for comprehending the issue of poverty and also provide a firsthand information to be used by policy makers administrators, social welfare agencies etc. in effort to reduce poverty.

Secondly, it would be valuable to the academia and provoke more or continuants research work and analysis of poverty in or/its effect on human development.

Finally, this work shall provide or suggest reasonable solution that will assist relevant agencies saddled with the responsibility of reduction of poverty as one of the pivot towards achieving the millennium development goals and sustainable development in Nigeria in particular and Africa at large.

1. Literature Review

Poverty  is  the  condition  that  exists   when

people lacks the ability to satisfy their basic needs. The basic need are those necessities for survival or

broadly  as  those  reflecting  the  revealing  standa

of living that is, those at the border line of nutrition, housing, clothing among others though adequate to preserve life but do measure up to those of the population as whole (Encyclopedia Britannia 1978, vol. 14).

It is also a state of involuntary deprivation to which a person, household and nations are subjected. This means individuals, household, and nations under scale can be poor, so long as it exhibits the characteristics of poverty source (MVO, 2009:24).

Poverty is also associated with poor health low level of education, low level of calories in one ?s diet, lack of shelter, low level of employment. Furthermore, poverty refers to the inability of an individual or family to secure basic needs even in the midst of social surrounding of general prosperity or lack of some general attribute that would allow an individual to maintain himself. And people that are associated with such behaviors likE inability          to       manage        money         either         by       laziness,

drunkenness and producing too many can make a nation or an individual to be poor.

The concept of poverty like every other concepts in the social sciences lack a precise definition that can be said to be as patial and that is temporal. If it perhaps this line of thought that informed Aboyade (1975:4) to state that poverty is probably not a subject to be defined or measured to be appreciated, it may have to do with suffering despite this remarks, the search for commonly accepted characteristic of poverty for slicken people continue to gain currency and as several definition of poverty have been pasted by scholars.

In conceptualizing poverty, two schools of thought have emerged. One of the schools is classical economist they conceives poverty as lack of income or material well-being, corroborating this view Arinze (1995) described poverty as “the lack of income needed to acquire the minimum necessities of life.

Galbraith?s (2002) citing Aneke (2000) state that people are poverty slicken when their income even if adequate for survival, fall markedly below those of the commodity they cannot have what the larger community regards.

Another school of thought structural approach linked poverty to both economic variables.

AneLe (2000) argues that:

“If we focus on income alone, we are likely to gloss over other equally important aspects of deprivations, these includes powerlessness, cultural deprivation, lack of influence, lack of prestige and lack of self esteem?? (Anele, 2000:12).

This argument corroborated with Broomley and Gerry (1979). When they assert that poverty emanates from a present and or past process of improvement by which resources, opportunities and economic surplus have been substantially removed from people who are currently poor and or from their for bearer.

Several reasons have been advanced as the causes of poverty in Nigeria as well as other

developing        countries        as      argued       by      the      classicaL

economist and Marxist political economist. The classical economist according to Nnaa (2003) linked poverty to;

„A process of circular cumulative causation in which low income leads to low level of saving which keeps productivity low and which in turn perpetuates low income and its attendance consequence of absolute poverty with inadequate health services, poor education and other social services” it is therefore, conceived as self reinforcing situation in which there are forces and factors which tend to perpetuate a various cycle poverty „(Nnnaa, 2003:20).

On the other hand, the Marxist political economist allocates the causes of poverty in the structure of society, in their conception, the political economist and social structure of society. In their conception, the political economist and social structure of a given society account for the extent and distribution of poverty.

Thus, in a capitalist system like Nigeria where the ruling class established and legitimized an exploitative property system through which they determines the allocation of opportunities, income and health relying on the use of state power their advantage, the degree of its distribution will be higher among the vast majority. In other words, it is understood from, the stand point that the causative factors of poverty is rooted in the social relationship which ensures the control of the productive forces in the country by few individuals who direct state apparatus to intervene on behalf of the ruling class at the expense of the generality of the poor masses

A look at poverty profile in Nigeria right from 1999-2009 shows that it is on increase as could be seen in the table below

Nigeria poverty level from 199-2009

Sources (1) Bureau of statistics (BOS) (2009)

From the table above we can agree that poverty has taken its turn of flesh from the ordinary Nigeria masses thus making the effects on Nigerians Multi-dimensional.

This shows that it has negative influences amongst others on the socio-cultural, economic, political, moral, health, security and educational lives of the people using the multi -dimensional

schematic framework of under-development, the effects of desolate poverty has manifested in low per capital income, low consumption level, poor health services, high death rate, high birth rate vulnerability to dependence on foreign economy limited freedom to choose between variable that satisfy human wants poor educational and other social services with its attendant consequences of lack of shelter, homeless, hunger both of the body and the mind malnutrition. Target for disease and sickness, short life expectancy mental retardations, social out least and political alienation, to mention but a few, this situation which is a self reinforcing phenomenon tends to perpetuate undesirable consequences which leads to abject poverty and underdevelopment in the nation.

The concept “sustainable development was first used by world conservation strategy presented by the international; union for the conservation of nature and natural resources 1980. However, this

concept        has       been        defined         in       several         ways       by

several scholars – Pearce, Barbler and markandaya (1990) Red cliff (1987) world development report (1992) World Bank report (1982) Pearce and Markandaya (1989) and Brundtland Report (1987) see sustainable development as meeting the needs of future generations. They go on to argue that sustainable development means that Development should keep going. It emphasizes the creation of sustainable improvement in the quality of life, of all the people through increase in real income per capital, improvement in education, health and general quality of life and improvements in quality of natural environmental resources. Thus sustainable development is closely linked to economic development that does not decrease over time. Therefore sustainable development is development that is everlasting and contributes to the quality of life through improvement in turn supply utility to individual?s inputs to the economic process and service that support life.

Pearce and Markandaya (1989) reinforce this when they state that sustainable development should be a process in which natural resources base is not allowed to deteriorate it emphasizes the role of environmental quality and environmental inputs in the process of raising real income and quality of life

Sustainable Development aims at the creation of sustainable improvements in the quality of life for all people, in this case citizens of member - states as the principal goal of development has many objectives. Beside increasing economic growth and meeting basic needs, the aim of lifting living standards includes a number of more specific goals such as bettering people? s health and education opportunities giving everyone the chance to participate is public life helping to ensure a clean environment, promoting intergenerational equality. Therefore meeting the needs of the peoples in the present generation is essential in order to sustainthe needs of future generation.

Further, sustainable development aims at maximizing the net benefits of economic and natural resource assets physical, human and natural overtime, in this regard economists distinguish between the concept of strong sustainability and weak sustainability. Strong sustainability requires that the natural capital stock should not decrease. On the other hand, weak sustainability required also that the total value of physical, human and natural capital stock should not decrease. Pearce et al (1990) agree that weak sustainability is better because increase in the other capital stock can substitute for decrease in natural stock. Consequently, sustainable development in its weak form implies that the rate of change of development overtime is generally positive over some selected time horizon.

Finally sustainable development aim at accelerating economic development in order to conserve and enhance the stock of environmental

human and physical capital without making future generation worse-off.