Poverty Alleviation: Unrealistic And Unproductive

The concept of poverty is that it hinders the development of a country. The world bank measures poverty in terms of daily spending of  $1 to $2 per day per person. Previous administrations in Nigeria have continually made efforts to address the challenges of poverty through different programs and policies, some of them include National Poverty Alleviation Program (NAPEP), Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), Rural Infrastructural Development Scheme (RIDS), Natural Resources Development and Conservation Scheme (NRDCS) e.t.c. Most of the poverty alleviation programs are embedded with several challenges thereby leading to their respective failures. All these are aimed at improving the economic and social conditions for the unprotected part of the population but the government has been fighting poverty for decades but there has been no significant change in the poverty rate.

Most of the government policies on youth empowerment and poverty alleviation are not realistic and unproductive, as these policies are often adopted from Western countries, which are most times not applicable to the country’s situations. As different administrations come into government, these policies are often changed due to a lack of continuity among government authorities. Despite these poverty alleviation programs, the unemployment rate still kept increasing; the rate of unemployment between 2015 and 2020 is frightening. This, as well, leads to an increase in crime rates among the youths.

Aside from the fact that government policies do not favor these poverty alleviation programs, corruption also has an integral part in the failure of Nigeria’s poverty alleviation efforts. Corruption has eaten deep into the government; public funds earmarked for these programs are being misappropriated daily by the Nigerian leaders who are majorly after their selfish interests while ignoring the interests of the country’s masses.

Education is pivotal to reducing poverty as it promotes economic growth, innovation, and national productivity, but the educational system of the country can be regarded as a failure compared to the countries in the world.

Jayeola Gbenga

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