BY CLEM AINABE, PH.D
Poverty – the condition of being poor; lacking or deficient in necessary properties. At any state, poverty can be humiliating and/or dehumanizing. In the abject state it can drive good, upright citizens, to do things they ordinarily will not do in order to survive. The percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty – those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing, according to the national bureau of statistics, rose to 60.9 percent in 2010, compared with 54.7 percent in 2004. The sad thing about this is that everyone who juxtaposes Nigeria’s natural and human resources with its population invariably comes up with the same result – no Nigerian or anyone in Nigeria should be living in poverty.
Nigerian government, at different phases/stages had had to take on poverty and its attendant pains, perpetrated on the citizens. From mid 1980s to now, different policies have been put in place with the intention, superficial or genuine, of making major dents on poverty. Among them are: Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), Better Life Program (BLP), Directorate of Employment (NDE); People’ Bank of Nigeria (PBN); Community Bank (CB); Family Support Program (FSP); Family Economic Advancement……
…Continue reading in the Life and Times 2013 Spring Edition
