The Politics Of Poverty Eradication In Nigeria

The Politics Of Poverty Eradication In Nigeria

Dr. Sulaiman Khalid

Department of Sociology

Usmanu Danfodiyo University

Sokoto

e-mail:sulkhalid@yahoo.co.uk

1. Introduction

One of the most notable features of the development experience during the past fifty years is that poverty in developing world remains widespread. One quarter of the world’s people continue to live in absolute poverty, unable to meet their most basic needs, and surviving on less than a dolar a day, the World Bank’s international poverty line. Over one hundred million children of school age are denied the right to a basic education, and in sub-Saharan Africa the absolute and proportionate number of children out of school is rising. Each year, half a million women die in child birth because they have no access to simple and affordable ante-natal health care. Every week, close to a quarter of a million children under the age of five die from malnutrition, malaria, measles and other easily preventable diseases.

Using poverty indicators such as literacy level, access to safe water, nutrition, infant and maternal mortality, and the number of people living on less than $1 a day, Nigeria is found to rank among the 25 poorest nations in the world below Kenya, Ghana and Zambia (World Bank, 2002). This is in spite of all the efforts and resources devoted for many years to fighting poverty by successive governments in Nigeria, with the support of richer nations and international development institutions. This unsatisfactory results call for a re-examination of policies and practices of poverty eradication in Nigeria.

2. Defining Poverty

Any discussion about poverty, and poverty eradication, needs to begin with agreement on the definitions, or discourse, being used. This is very crucial to establishing criteria of success or failure of any poverty-eradication strategy. Yet, definitions of poverty vary widely and are often used interchangeably.

Most commonly, poverty is defined as “state of being in which we are unable to meet our needs” (Watt, 2000:15). However, the concept of ‘needs’ itself is defined very differently across different cultures and generations, as technology and changing values alter perceptions of the pre-requisites of an acceptable standard of living. This indicates that the concept of ‘needs’ includes the notion of what is conventionally regarded as necessary to lead one’s life as an integrated member of a particular society. Thus, in his The Wealth of the Nations, the eighteenth century Scottish economist, Adam Smith, recognized the importance of this point when he defined the ability to appear in public “without shame” as a major criterion of individual human welfare (Smith, 1986).

Baratz and Grisgby (1972) defined poverty as a “condition involving some deprivations and adverse occurrences that are closely (but not necessarily exclusively) associated with inadequate economic resources”. Some see poverty as “inadequacy of income to support a minimum standard of living” (Edozien: 1975:35). Closely connected to this is the use of “Basic Needs” indicators such as food, clothing, shelter, etc. to define the concept.

Not infrequently, distinction is made between “absolute” and “relative” poverty. Absolute poverty, according to Webster (1993) describes situation in which people are barely existing, where the next meal may literally be a matter of life or death as the cumulative effects of malnutrition and starvation enfeeble all, particularly children, whose weakness gives them the tragic distinction of having the highest mortality rate for any group any where in the world. Thus in these circumstances poverty takes on an “absolute” status since there is nothing beyond it except death.

Relative poverty on the other hand is much more difficult to establish as an objective concept. Definition of poverty along this line varies dramatically among official government agencies and academics. For example, Webster (1993) reported that in 1973 a representative of the National Welfare Rights Organization in the United States estimated that a family of four needed $7200 per year to satisfy their basic requirements below this, the organization considered people to be in poverty. Yet, in the same year, U.S. government estimated the poverty line for a similar household at an income below $4500.

Again, using the concept of relative deprivation, Townsend (1979:31) says:

Individual, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged or approved, in the societies in which they belong. Their resources are so seriously below those commanded by the average individual or family that they are in effect, excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities”.

Dreze and Sen (2001:217) have defined poverty in terms of constraints on capabilities (the freedom to achieve or meet our needs) and functionings (those things we want or need to achieve). Poverty eradication, therefore, is best approached as an exercise in raising people’s capabilities, or enhancing freedoms. The corollary of this approach to development is that empowerment – helping people in poverty to acquire the tools they need to meet their needs – is the long-term solution to poverty.

3. Poverty Profile of Nigeria

Poverty in Nigeria was first measured in 1980 by the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS), when 27.2 per cent of the population, or 18 million people, were classified as poor. By 1985, the Federal Office of Statistics estimated that about 46 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty level but it dropped to 43 per cent by 1992. This rate surged to 66 per cent in a 1996 survey and the total number of poor nearly quadrupled, to 67 million (UNDP 1986). Estimates put the poverty rate today at close to 70 per cent, or 90 million people. Perhaps 40 per cent of these people are the '‘core' poor”, so impoverished that they cannot meet their basic food needs, and indeed, the stunting rate for young Nigerian children, a measure of chronic nutritional deprivation and food insecurity, stands at 42 per cent (NICEF, 2003).

The phenomenon of poverty appears to be more concentrated in the rural than in the urban areas of the country. The number of rural poor, according to the 1999 World Bank Report, is roughly twice that of the urban poor. Of the extremely poor, 85 per cent live in the rural areas and more than two-thirds lived on farms. The distribution of poverty is also inequitable on a geographic basis. Regionally the North-West geopolitical zone has the largest proportion of its population living in poverty, and the three northern geo-political zones have 65 per cent of the nation’s population but account for only 35 per cent of GDP. The 1997 National Consumer Survey indicated that the average family expenditure per month for the contry was N4,058.00. Out the country’s six geo-political zones, the North West zone had the least figure N2.941. The Eastern zone had the highest figure of N5,194.00, almost double the figure for the North-West zone. Also, the North West zone recorded the lowest figure of household income (N3,769), while the highest figure of N7,213 came from the South Eastern zone. The level of poverty in the zone is striking indeed. About 54.2 per cent of the inhabitants of the zone live below the poverty line. The North-West came second only to North-east which recorded 55.8 per cent on the poverty scale (World Bank, 2001). No part of the country is exempt from poverty, however, and severe poverty is also experienced in the Southern regions. Lack of formal education, large household size, living in a rural area and pursuing an agricultural livelihood are strongly associated with poverty.

4. The Causes of Poverty

The main causes of poverty in Nigeria are unemployment, ignorance, poor governance, corruption, high inflation, environmental degradation, high population growth, among others.

Specifically, in rural areas, where 85 per cent of Nigeria’s poor reside, the major cause of poverty has been identified as the use of outmoded and inefficient systems in agriculture and craft. Other contributory factors to low income in rural areas, according to Abubakar (1975), include inadequate infrastructure, lack of credit and marketing facilities, unfavourable rural institutions especially in respect of land tenure; ignorance; illiteracy and cultural and institutional rigidities. Williams (1984) has also identified lack of viable non-farm employment opportunities in the rural sector thereby leading to over-crowding on the land and under-employment of labour. It should be added that even though alternative occupations like traditional crafts and petty trading do exist in most villages, yet investigations have shown that incomes realized from these occupations are as low as those realized from farming (Williams, 1984).

In addition to the dearth of remunerative non-farming occupations during the dry-season, Hill (1982) identified the following additional factors as key causes of general poverty particularly in rural Hausa land:

(a) the limitation of the farming season;

(b) the unreliability of the climate especially as it concerns annual and erratic distribution of rainfall within the farming season;

(i) the inability of many poor farmers to farm on a scale which matches their labour resources, and

(ii) rudimentary nature of the system of farm-labour employment; and

(d) the dire shortage of working capital, which severely limits the scale and productiveness of farming especially where cultivation of manure farmland is the preferred agronomic system.

Unfavourable physical environmental conditions, such as desertification in the North, water hyacinth in inland waterways and oil spillage in the Niger-Delta, have contributed to the low economic fortune of the inhabitants of those areas of the country, thereby aggravating their level of poverty. Abubakar (2002) noted that 35 per cent of the country’s landmass, particularly in the North, has come under serious desert encroachment.

Unemployment situation in the country which became manifest in the early 1980s has assumed crisis level in 1990s has worsened the level of poverty. Cumulatively, Nigeria produced a total of 1,110,000 graduates from tertiary institutions between 1985 and 1996 alone (Abubakar, 2002:115). It was observed that less than 100,000 of this number got formal jobs which suggest that one million might be openly unemployed or under-employed for the same period.

5. Poverty Eradication Efforts in Nigeria

Successive regimes in Nigeria have tried different policies and programmers geared towards reducing the level of poverty in the society through a number of ways. First, through the activities of its ministries/agencies; second, by collaborating with international agencies; third, and more importantly, through the establishment of agencies equipped solely to fight rising poverty and unemployment in Nigeria.

The Joda Panel, established at the inception of the civilian administration of Obasanjo to review the various poverty eradication programmers of the previous regimes, identified over twenty such institutions. They are:

i. The National Directorate of Employment (NDE)

ii. Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN)

iii. Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank Ltd (NACB)

iv. Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC)

v. National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE)

vi. National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA)

vii. National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA)

viii. National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education

ix. Federal Agricultural Coordinating Unit (FACU)

x. Directorate for Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFFRI)

xi. Agricultural Projects Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (APMEU)

xii. Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP)

xiii. Industrial Development Centre (IDC)

xiv. Federal Department of Rural Development (FDRD)

xv. Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources and Power and Steel

xvi. River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs)

xvii. Family Support Trust Fund (FSTF)

xviii. National Centre for Women Development (CWD)

xix. Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (NBCI)

xx. Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB)

xxi. Nigerian Export-Import Bank

xxii. National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND)

Perhaps a note on some of these institutions and programmes may be useful especially when some of them were designed to deal with the problems of poverty directly while others do it indirectly. The River Basin Development Authorities established by Decree 37 of August 1976 is one of the earliest attempt at combating poverty via improved agricultural production. The main objective of the RBDAs is the economic exploitation and management of the land water resources of their respective areas of operation with particular but varying emphasis on the development of agriculture, fishing, human settlement, infrastructural facilities and industry as well as the improvement of their environment. The Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) enunciated in 1979 by Gen. Obasanjo’s military regime is another indirect effort at poverty eradication. The program had the specific focus of increasing food production on the premise that availability of cheap food will raise the nutritional level of the ordinary Nigerian and invariably lead to high per capita income and improved standard of living. OFN lasted until Shagari’s civilian government (1979-83) took over. The Shagari’s regime shared almost the same poverty reduction with the preceeding military regime. It came up with Green Revolution project, which also emphasised food production. To this one may also add the Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI) introduced by the Babangida administration (1985-92). DFRRI sought to open up rural areas via construction of feeder roads and provision of basic amenities that would turn them into production centres for the national economy.

The establishment of National Directorate of Employment (NDE) is certainly one of the indirect measures taken by the government to attack poverty in the society via creation of employment opportunities.

The National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) was established in 2001, with the goal of eliminating “core” poverty over the next ten years. NAPEP evolved four core schemes:

i. Women and Youth Employment Scheme. This is essentially a training and skill acquisition scheme.

ii. Social Welfare Service Scheme: This scheme undertakes the provision of acceptable levels of education, health, micro-credit services, etc.

iii. Rural Infrastructural Development Scheme: This is to address provision of rural infrastructure services such as portable water, roads, transport, grazing reserves, etc.

iv. Natural Resources Development and Conservation: This entails government intervening by creating enabling and acceptable environment for harnessing the agricultural water, solid mineral resources, etc for convenient and effective use by the small-scale operators and local residents.

Whether these programmes and policies have succeeded in either reducing poverty or not is mute point.

REFERENCES

Abubakar, Y. (1975), “Rural Poverty” Some Agricultural Issues” in Rural Poverty in Nigeria (Proceedings of the 1975 Annual Conference of Nigerian Economic Society.

Abubakar, A.G. (2002), “Poverty Reduction and Direct Job Creation in Nigeria” in Jega, A.M. and H. Wakili (eds.) The Poverty Eradication Programme in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects, Kano: Benchmark Publishers Ltd.

Baratz, N.S. and W.G. Grisby (1972), “Thoughts on Poverty and its Implementation: in Journal of Social Policy, Vol.6, April.

Dreeze, J. And A. Seen (2000), Hunger and Public Action, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edozien, E.O. (1975), “Poverty: Some Issues in Concept and Theory”, in Rural Poverty in Nigeria (Op.cit.).

Hill, O. (1982), “General Causes of Poverty in Hausaland” in C.Allen and G. Williams (ed.), Sociology and Developing Societies, London: Macmillan.

Federal Office of Statistics (1997) National Consumer Survey 1996/97, Abuja, November.

Federal Office of Statistics (1997) Poverty Profile for Nigeria.

Federal Office of Statistics (1999) The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity and Growth, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smith, A. (1986), The Wealth of Nations, Harmondsworth: Pengium.

Townsend, P. (1979), Poverty in United Kingdom, London: Macmillan.

Watt, P. (2000), Social Investment and Economic Growth: Strategy to Eradicate Poverty, Oxford: Oxfam G.B.

World Bank (1996), Nigeria: Poverty in the Midst of Plenty, Report No.120 Washington DC.

World Bank (2002) World Development Report, 2000/2001 Washington DC.

Williams, G. (1984), Taking the Part of Peasants: Peasants and Inequalities” in Allen & Williams (eds.), op.cit.

Webster, A. (1993), Introduction to the Sociology of Development, Hong Kong: The Macmillan Press.