DEVELOPMENT AND CHRONIC POVERTY IN NIGERIA: AN EXAMINATION OF OBASANJO'S ECONOMIC REFORM PROGRAM
Abstract
There is no doubt that Nigeria under Obasanjo's administration is engulfed in a web of chronic poverty, which affects its performance in the development arena. The country has all it takes to develop but unfortunately it could not due to the complex nature of the country's social problems. The country is endowed with vast agricultural and natural resources, and has a relatively important industrial sector (48% of the GDP in 2001), as compared to other West African or Sub-Saharan countries (less than 30%). The recent Human Development index has placed Nigeria among the 20 poorest countries in the World. It is estimated that up to 70% of Nigerians are living below poverty line. Nigeria has been branded by the international community as the second most corrupt nation in the World. For three consecutive years, 2000, 2001 and 2002, it has maintained that unenviable position. The rating came up as a consequence of several failed attempts by the Obasanjo’s administration to wipe out corruption and poverty or reduce them to a tolerable level in the polity. In the same vein, within the Obasanjo’s administration the country has been engulfed in a series of conflicts resulting in the lost in lives and property. Various developmental strategies have been adopted by the Obasanjo's administration, yet the situation is not very encouraging. We have passed the 2015 deadline for the achievement of the MDGs, the poverty eradication policies are judged to be unsatisfactory and inadequate in meeting the MDGs. It is absolutely frustrating and painful when you realize the immense potentials of Nigeria. Eight years is enough time for any administration to sort out the fundamental problem of the country (poverty). Against this backdrop, the paper examined the various developmental strategies for combating poverty in Nigeria. This is with a view to proffering policy recommendations for the present administration on how best to alleviate poverty in Nigeria to achieve the sustainable developmental goals now in place.
Article visualizations:
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abdullahi, A. (2004). Poverty distribution in Nigeria. A discussion paper presented at a workshop on sustainable development in Northern Nigeria, Zaria, 17-18 July.
Action Aid International Nigeria: “Fighting poverty together in the midst of plenty”,
Adogamhe, P. G (2010). Economic policy reform and poverty alleviation: A critique of Nigeria’s strategic plan for poverty reduction, Poverty and policy, 2 (4): 49-80.
Bambale, A. J. (2011). National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy and Poverty reduction in Nigeria: A critique, Economics and Finance review,1 (1): 15-24 www.efr.businessjournals.org.
Brenda, U. N. (2012). Aspects of the economic reforms of Olusegun Obasabjo’s administration, 1999-2007, Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, A project report submitted for the award of Masters of Arts (M.A) in History and International studies.
Ake, C. (1989). The political economy of Africa. Ibadan; Longman
Dansabo, M. T. (2006). “Nigerian Social Structure and Development: A Sociological Anatomy of Social Problems” in The Social Costs of Privatization and deregulation in Nigeria, NISS Publication, Ikeja-Lagos.
Dansabo, M. T. (2015). Assessing the developmental impact of poverty eradication programmes in Sokoto State, Nigeria. The Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 13 (1).
Department for International Development “Halving World Poverty by 2015: Economic Growth, Equity and Security”, Strategies for Achieving the International Development Target.
Eze, G. O. (2007). The Politics of poverty eradication in Nigeria. Journal of Management Sciences.17 (2):56-57.
Garba, T. (2006). Rural household survey in Sokoto State of Nigeria: Determinants and consequences on child work and Education attainment. An unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Economics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
Jary, J. and Jary, D. (2000). Collins Internet Dictionary of Sociology. Glasgow-Great Britain: Harper Collins publishers.
Karofi, U. A. and Malami, H. U. (2004). Dimensions and challenges of poverty to human and economic development in Nigeria”, In Chika, U.A and Abubakar, S.A (Eds.) Issues in Economics, Vol.1, Sokoto: University Press, Usmanu Danfodiyo University.
Khalid S. (2008). NEPAD and Poverty Alleviation: An Examination of Existing Poverty Reduction Programmes in Nigeria, A text of paper presented at the NEAPAD Stakeholders Workshop, Birnin Kebbi, January 28-29.
Leadership Newspaper, August, 9, 2005.
Millennium Development Goals Report (2005), National Planning Commission, Garki- Abuja.
Moore, K. (2005). Thinking about youth poverty through the lenses of chronic poverty, life-course poverty and intergenerational poverty, Institute for Development policy
National Economic Empowerment Strategy (NEEDS) -2004 National Planning Commission Garki-Abuja.
Oghuvbu, B. (2007). Impact of education and economic growth on poverty reduction in Nigeria. International Journal of Innovative Research and Studies, 2 (8).
Rodney, Walter (1971). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa: London L’ Duverture Publication.
Sani, S. (2008). Poverty in Northern Nigeria. Labari communications, Kaduna, Nigeria.
Scott, L. (2008). Climate variability and climate change: Implications for chronic poverty, Working paper No. 108 February, Overseas Development Institute (www.chronicpoverty.org accessed 2011-28-03).
Seers, D. (1973). The meaning of development. In Uphoff and Hehman, W. R. (Eds.) Political economy of development. California: University of California press.
Transparency International TI (2007). “Corruption Perception Index” Accessed from http://.en.wikepedia.org
Weekly Trust Newspaper, October,15-21,2005 Vol. 8 No. 47 Media Trust Nigeria Ltd Pp.3,17 & 18.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v0i0.635
Copyright (c) 2019 Muhammad Tasiu Dansabo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.
Copyright © 2016 - 2023. European Journal Of Social Sciences Studies (ISSN 2501-8590) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.
