Abstract
This study contends that poverty is a global phenomenon and no nation is immune to the scourge it is capable of causing especially when determined and clear policy measures are not put in place to check the menace. The objectives that interrogates the nerves of this discourse is to assess the rate of poverty in Nigeria as well as examine the role of government in poverty eradication. Also, to identify the various initiatives that governments in Nigeria have put in place since the pre; through and the post Structural Adjustment Programme era of the nation. Findings from the study reveals that attitudinal response and approach of both the government and the governed is appalling. Also, there exist a sharp disconnect between the government and the governed which has resulted into policy formulations that fail to meet the yearning, demand and desire of the people. Meanwhile, it was established that political and policy instability, poor targeting mechanism and inadequate coordination among the existing three tiers of government have done harm to programme implementation. The paper makes contribution by providing information and it adopt secondary source of data gathering. It concludes by recommending strengthened relationship/ communication between the governments and the governed to ensure proper and adequate policies that will meet their targets are made as well as enforcement of initiatives of governments directed at reducing poverty.
Highlights
Poverty in Nigeria just like many other sub-Saharan African nations has been a worrisome and exasperate phenomenon
This study contends that poverty is a global phenomenon and no nation is immune to the scourge it is capable of causing especially when determined and clear policy measures are not put in place to check the menace
In the quest for national growth and improved society cum development, the efforts by the various governments of the country geared towards poverty eradication according to Ijaiya (2007: 479) could be grouped into three stages, that is, the pre SAP era that witnessed the period of programmes such as Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), the River Basin Development Authority (RBDA), the Agricultural Development Programme, the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme and the Green Revolution
Summary
Poverty in Nigeria just like many other sub-Saharan African nations has been a worrisome and exasperate phenomenon. It is paradoxical in a nation like Nigeria that is richly blessed in minerals. According to the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, mineral resources that are present in Nigeria include coal and tin. Other natural resources in the country are iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc, and arable land. There is the abundance of natural gas, bitumen, limestone, coal, tin, columbite, gold, silver, lead-zinc, gypsum, glass sands, clays, asbestos, graphite, and iron ore, among others. While agricultural products include groundnuts, palm oil, cocoa, coconut, citrus fruits, maize, millet, cassava, yams and sugar cane. Regimes after regimes, both military and civilian have at different times initiated several intervention strategies both on short and long term basis to put in place machinery to combat the scourge through the policies and programme implemented, yet, the menace has not abated but kept on even more daring
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