AN ASSESSMENT OF IMPACTS OF POVERTY REDUCTION PROGRAMMES IN NIGERIA AS A DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the impact of poverty reduction programmes as a development strategy in Nigeria from 1970 to date. The study first of all examined issues of poverty and underdevelopment in Nigeria, attributing it to lack of employment, high rate of illiteracy among the citizenry, poor infrastructure, inadequate access to micro credit facilities, mismanagement of public funds, bad governance, instability of the governments and its policies. The study also examined the efforts made by different governments in poverty alleviation within this period.

In carrying out this study, a total of 717 respondents made up of men and women between the ages of 25 and 56 years, were drawn from six geo-political zones in Nigeria; and administered with questionnaires, and their responses collated and analysed. The chi-square statistical technique and percentages were used in analysing the collated data, and testing of the research hypothesis. Results revealed that poverty alleviation initiatives of the

Federal Government of Nigeria, since the 1970s till date have not significantly impacted positively on the lives of Nigerians, especially the poor; and has not led to the overall reduction of poverty in Nigeria. The findings of the research also seem to strongly suggest that Nigerians at the rural areas are more likely to associate with poverty alleviation programmes in which they participated in contributing ideas into the initial policy design stages of such programmes, which they will later consent to at the rural level.

The study concluded by suggesting that for any meaningful development alleviation programmes must be properly packaged, such that government would go into partnership with the rural people, in order to make implementation easier and successful; thus engendering economic self-sustenance, economic growth and development.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE - - - - - - - - 1

A Introduction - - - - - - - - 1

1.2. Statement of the Problem - - - - - - 8

1.3. Aims and Rationale for the Study - - - - -   11

1.3 Background of the Study - - - - - - 12

1.4 Research Question - - - - - - - 13

1.5 Background & Significance of the study - - - - 13

1.6 Limitations of the study - - - - - - 24

1.7 Scope of the study - - - - - - - 26

1.8 Definition of terms - - - - - - - 27

B Research Methodology - - - - - - 31

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1.9 Statement of the hyposthenia - - - - - 31

1.10 The research population - - - - - - 33

1.11 Sample size - - - - - - - - 34

1.12 Justification for the sample selection - - - - 35

1.13 Instrument used - - - - - - - 36

1.14 Sampling Procedure - - - - - - 36

1.15 Scoring procedure - - - - - - - 37

1.16 Statistical techniques used in analysis the data - - 38

1.17 Justification of the method - - - - - 39

1.18 Summary - - - - - - - - 40

CHAPTER TWO [LITERATURE REVIEW] - - 41

2.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 41

2.1 Poverty reduction Policy in Context: An Development Discourse 48

2.2 The growth discourse: The creation of Development Orthodoxy 51

2.3 Poverty reduction:- moves to the centre of the agenda 56

2.4 Neoliberal resurgence from SAPs to SIFs - - - 60

2.5 Poverty assessments and PPAs - - - - - 66

2.6 Mainstreaming Poverty: Creating spaces for change after the

Consensus - - - - - - - - - 72

2.7 Colonialism and underdevelopment: - Africa - - - 81

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2.8 Consequences of Colonial Rule in Africa - - - 89

2.9 Underdevelopment - - - - - - - 91

2.10 The concept of Development - - - - - 92

2.11 Various assumptions of development - - - - 93

2.12 Development conceived as socio-economic - - - 93

2.13 Recent perspectives on development - - - - 96

2.14 Marxist Approach to Development - - - - 99

2.15 Development viewed as socio-economic transformation - 100

2.15.1 Explaining underdevelopment - - - - - 101

2.15.2 The underdevelopment theory from the modernisation school 103

CHAPTER THREE: Poverty And Development - - 106

3.1 Institutional framework of poverty alleviation - - - 106

3.2 Non-formal institutions - - - - - - 111

3.3 Tackling poverty - - - - - - - 116

3.4 Early attempts at poverty alleviation - - - - 119

3.5 Containing rural poverty - - - - - - 122

3.6 Score basic assumptions and concepts of poverty - - 125

B. Poverty & Development- the Nigeria factor - - - 134

3.7 Problem of the health sector - - - - - 135

3.8 Problems of the educational sector - - - - - 140

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3.9 Other social Vices - - - - - - - 143

3.9.1 Corruption  - - - - - - - - 143

3.9.2 Armed robbery - - - - - - - 145

3.9.3 Religious upheaval - - - - - - - 145

3.9.4 Problems relating to governance - - - - 146

3.10 Socio-Cultural Imperatives for balanced - - - 147

3.10.1 Development of Local Knowledge and talents - - - 147

3.10.2 Improving funding for education and health - - - 148

3.10.3 Enhancement of the Traditional health-care system - 149

3.10.4 Encouragement of cultural approach to child nutrition - 149

3.10.5 Promotion of cultural values of family institution - - 150

3.10.6 Support for the security of the Nigerian State - - 151

3.11 Public policy making and implementation in Nigeria - 152

3.11.1 Public policy-making process - - - - - 155

3.11.2 Contending factors in public policy implementation in Nigeria 161

3.11.3 The challenge of public policy implementation in Nigeria:-

The Guide posts - - - - - - - 169

3.11.4 Problems of poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria - 171

CHAPTER FOUR - - - - - - 174

Poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria - - - - 174

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A. Introduction - - - - - - - - 174

4.1 The green revolution in Nigeria - - - - - 179

4.1.1 policy on green revolution - - - - - 180

4.1.2 Implementation strategy for the green revolution - - 180

4.2 Director of Food, Roads, And Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) - 181

4.2.1 Policy on DFRRI - - - - - - - 182

4.2.2 Implementation Strategy - - - - - - 183

4.3 Better Life Programme in Nigeria (BLP) - - - 183

4.3.1 Strategy Implementation - - - - - - 184

4.4 The family support programme in Nigeria (FSP) - - 184

4.4.1 Objectives and Aims of the family support programmes (FSP) 185

4.5 National Directorate of Employment (NDE) - - - 186

4.6 National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy

(NEEDS)   - - - - - - - - - 187

4.6.1 Statement of the Vision and Mission - - - - 187

4.6.2 Core Values - - - - - - - - 188

4.6.3 Fundamental Principles - - - - - - 190

B. Poverty Alleviation: Domestic and External Interventions 192

4.7 The Domestic Policies - - - - - - 192

4.8 Government’s Programmes Relayed to Poverty - - 194

4.8.1 Agriculture sector programmes - - - - - 194

4.8.2 Health sector programmes - - - - - 195

4.8.3 Education sector - - - - - - - 195

4.8.4 The Transport sector - - - - - - 195

4.8.5 Financial sector programme - - - - - 195

4.8.6 Manufacturing sector programme - - - - 196

4.9 Current efforts at poverty alleviation - - - - 197

4.9.1 The poverty alleviation programme (PAP) - - - 198

4.10 The National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) - 199

4.10.1 Youth Empowerment Scheme - - - - - 199

4.10.2 Rural Infrastructure development - - - - 200

4.10.3 Social Welfare service scheme - - - - - 200

4.10.4 Natural resource development and conservation scheme

(NRDCS) - - - - - - - - 200

4.11 External Interventions - - - - - - 202

4.12 NEPAD and POVERTY REDUCTION - - - 202

4.13 The African Growth Opportunity ACT (AGOA) - - 203

4.14 The Intervention of Bi-lateral and multi-lateral institutions - 205

4.15 Summary - - - - - - - - 207

CHAPTER FIVE - - - - - - - 209

Data Presentation and Analysis - - - - - - 216

B. SUMMARY - - - - - - - 228

CHAPTER SIX - - - - - - - 231

Interpretation of Data and Further Analysis - - - - 231

6.2 The CHI-SQUARE STATISTICS - - - - - 231

6.3 PROOF OF HYPOTHESES - - - - - 233

6.3.1 HYPOTHESIS ONE - - - - - - 233

6.3.2 HYPOTHESIS TWO - - - - - - 236

6.3.3 HYPOTHESIS THREE - - - - - - 238

6.3.4 HYPOTHESIS FOUR - - - - - - 242

6.3.5 HYPOTHESIS FIVE - - - - - - 245

CHAPTER SEVEN - - - - - - - 248

SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS - - - 248

7.2 SPECIFIC FINDINGS - - - - - - 249

7.3 The imperative of rural development as a panacea for poverty

alleviation  - - - - - - - - 250

7.4 Economic Recovery Measures and Rural Sector - - 254

7.5 The way out of the contradictions - - - - - 259

7.6 Prospects for poverty alleviation in Nigeria - - - 260

7.6.1 Economic growth - - - - - - - 261

7.6.2 Access to social services and infrastructure - - - 261

7.6.3 Environmental Management Strategies - - - 262

7.6.4 Waste to wealth programme - - - - - 263

7.6.5 Political Strategies - - - - - - - 263

7.6.6 Empowerment of women - - - - - - 264

7.6.7 Policy options - - - - - - - 264

7.6.8 Option: Provision of employment - - - - 265

7.6.9 Advantages - - - - - - - - 266

7.6.10 Disadvantage - - - - - - - 266

7.6.11 Option 2: Area development - - - - - 266

7.6.12 Advantages - - - - - - - 266

7.6.13 Disadvantages - - - - - - - 267

7.6.14 Option 3: Human development - - - - - 267

7.6.15 Education - - - - - - - - 267

7.6.16 Advantages - - - - - - - 268

7.6.17 Disadvantages - - - - - - - 268

7.7 COMPARISON OF OPTIONS - - - - 268

7.8 OPTION ADOPTED - - - - - - 269

7.8.1 SUMMARY - - - - - - - 269

7.9 CONCLUSION - - - - - - - 272

7.10 IMPLICATIONS - - - - - - - 275

7.11 RECOMMENDATIONS - - - - - - 277

BIBLIOGRAPHY - - - - - - - - 279

APPENDIX ONE: LETTER OF INTRODUCTION - - 291

APPENDIX TWO: PERSONAL DATE/ QUESTIONAIRES - 292

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Selected Health indicators, Nigeria, 1965-1992 - 137

Table 3.2: School Enrolment Ratios, Nigeria, 1965-1991 - - 141

Table 5.1: Gender Distribution of respondents - - - 209

Table 5.2: Age Distribution of Respondents - - - - 210

Table 5.3: Educational Distribution of Respondents - - 211

Table 5.4: Occupational Distribution of Respondents - - 212

Table 5.5: Questionnaire Statement: Are you aware of poverty

alleviation  Programmes of Government? - - - 212

Table 5.6: Questionnaire Statement: Does a Cooperative Society exist

in your community? - - - - - - 213

Table 5.7: Questionnaire Statement: Has your NGO/Association been

consulted to make input in government poverty

alleviation policies? - - - - - 214

Table 5.8: Questionnaire Statement: What do you think will reduce

poverty in your community? - - - - 214

Table 5.9: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 216

Table 5.10: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 217

Table 5.11: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 218

Table 5.12: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 218

Table 5.13: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 219

Table 5.14: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 220

Table 5.15: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 222

Table 5.16: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 223

Table 5.17: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 224

Table 5.18: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 225

Table 5.19: Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 226

Table 5.20 Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 227

Table 5.21 Questionnaire Statement: - - - - - 228

Contingency Table 1 - - - - - - - 233

Contingency Table 2 - - - - - - - 236

Contingency Table 3 - - - - - - - 239

Contingency Table 4 - - - - - - - 240

Contingency Table 5 - - - - - - - 245

CHAPTER ONE

A. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Liberal scholars see the state as a product of social contract, an outcome of the escape from the state of nature in which life was said by Thomas Hobbes to be “nasty, brutish and short.” In order to escape from anarchy of the state of nature according to these liberal theorists, men surrendered their power to a single sovereign, hence the social contract and emergence of the State. On the other hand, the Marxian school sees the State as a logical aspect of the emergence of class struggle in society. Thus the State is a product of indigenous social classes in classical capitalist state and not imposition from without like the colonial State According to Hamza Alavi, “the essential problem about the state in a neo-colonial society (by extension colonial societies) stems from the fact that it is not established by an ascendant native bourgeoisie, but instead by a foreign imperialist bourgeoisie. Thus the bourgeois revolution in the colony in so far as that consists of the establishment of a bourgeois state and attendant level and institutional framework, is an event which took place with the imposition of colonial rule by the metropolitan bourgeoisie. Additionally the imperialist bourgeoisie had to create State apparatus through which it can exercise domination over all the indigenous social classes in the colony. It was to bring these features into effect that led to the forceful colonization of Nigeria and indeed Africa in the name of “civilizing mission.”

The emergence of the colonial state was impacted principally by the needs of the colonizing power. It was a product of the crises of the industrial revolution in the homeland of the colonizing powers. Hobson in his book “Imperialism” (1902) stated that imperialism and by extension colonialism was a logical consequence of over production and under consumption in the industrialized world after their industrial revolutions. In the process, therefore, they needed markets and sources of raw materials to sustain their industrial development and growth. One has to understand the logic of colonialism before we can understand the forces and processes that impacted on the evolution of the Nigerian colonial state. In the advanced capitalist states that were the colonizing powers in Africa, the state was a creation of an indigenous home grown dominant class or what is called the bourgeoisie. In other words, in the advanced capital states or countries, the state is not disoriented from its dominant class base which is home grown, but that in one of the backward capitalist social formations like Nigeria, the state is an imposition by the metropolitan dominant classes in the foreign domineering companies like the UAC. John Holt, SCOA in Nigeria. When the colonizers

left and batons of leadership handed over to new leaders in West African countries, such governments and their leaders were confronted with the effects of colonization which manifested in structural problems of disequilibria in education and development as a result of uneven colonial penetration into West African hinterlands, anomalies ambiguities and contradictions contained in the various constitutions, thus making governance difficult.

As the emerging governments lacked capacity and resources to deal with the problems of development and international relations, their political leaders became overwhelmed by the severity of hunger disease illiteracy and poverty afflicting the citizens of countries of West African sub-region. To worsen matters most of these political leaders soon separated themselves from the sufferings of the people, engaged themselves in self aggrandizements and became insensitive to the yearnings of their people for basic economic and social amenities instead, they frittered away their nations’ wealth in self enrichment and engaged in worthless development programmes. This state of affairs led to untold devastation of economics in the region: people had to live below poverty line, with little food, no shelter for them, and no adequate medical or educational facilities to give them some hopes. In each case, the oppressive conditions in which they lived led these people to evolve gradually

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into a class of disgruntled citizens, desperate for change to alleviate their sufferings. And as the socio-economic conditions of the people of West Africa continued to nose-dive and worsen, political leaders are now under pressure to provide welfare for their people as a pre-requisite for socio-political stability in their countries. Besides, the new world order places emphasis on good governance, economic prosperity and social justice. Only those governments, who provide for the welfare of their citizens amongst others, are likely to enjoy international co-operation with the world industrialized nations. No doubt this is the major impetus for political leaders to be more concerned with the total welfare of their people, especially in the area of poverty alleviation.

Every society strives to develop its infrastructure both human and material resources for the well being of its people just like the concept of industrialization, democracy and modernization, development is one of such concepts. However, despite its universal currency, appeal and usage, there is yet to be a consensus on what development precisely means, both conceptually operationally. (It remains a controversial and value-loaded concept). Most developing countries have been ravaged by acute poverty of monumental proportion. The African continent generally and Nigeria in particular, have been devastated by misrule by some of her leaders, most of

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whom spearheaded the struggle for independence. At that time soon after independence, they settled down to rule their people as though they were mere inheritors of the erstwhile colonial authority.

In almost all cases, the military provided the answer by way of coup de lat by toppling those political overlords Usually such military governments professed to have come in as corrective regimes that would stay for only brief periods within which they would put things in order before handing over to duly elected democratic governments. But because “absolute power corrupts absolutely” these military governments often ended up entrenching themselves. In fact, most of them exhibited all the traits of the much vilified of their predecessors, and even more.

Compared to other sub-regions of Africa, West Africa has been retrogressing both politically and economically. From its initial post-independence period of relative political stability and abundance of financial and other resources, the region has become politically unstable and economically very risky for both foreign and domestic investment. Little wonder therefore, that international donors and foreign private investors have shifted their focus from West Africa to other more stable and less risky sub-regions in the continent.

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West Africa is no more the favourite of international funding agencies. It has instead become a neglected, dangerous terrain for foreign investors. Progressively this new position of foreign companies, agencies and governments has led to capital flight and its attendant problems of low productivity and operational inefficiency in most of the productive sectors.

This study therefore, examines the concept of development and poverty as well as critically analyse the various poverty measures put in place by the government and how these programmes have impacted on the people. The study takes an overview of the conceptual problems associated with poverty and those programmes put in place for poverty alleviation such as the Operation. Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution, Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), etc.

A fundamental question to ask is, how far have these programmes impacted positively on the people? It is the objective of this study to find out the operational deficiencies associated with how best these measures could be improved upon. But first, why is the researcher interested in this study?

Having been raised in a typical rural setting and from an economically disadvantaged area the researcher was particularly interested in the research topic. His quest had always intensified whenever he visited his home town,

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(which is about 42 km from one of the state capitals in South-eastern Nigeria); and sees his people terribly bedevilled with abject poverty – no electricity, water and other vital social amenities that would have added succour to the living standard of the people.

The quest for philosophical explanation of poverty also pre-occupied the researcher’s mind throughout his 27 years of public service career. As a mili

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