Poverty and it's Alleviation: Lessons for Nigeria

The study focused on the persistent poverty status in Nigeria in spite of all the actions and activities directly and indirectly put in place to reduce it. Nigerian poverty statistics and government actions in tackling poverty were examined. Few countries that have succeeded in reducing poverty position were briefly examined. Specifically, we highlighted how Malaysia, China and South Korea aspired and attained high level poverty alleviation. The lessons of their success stories were the basis for recommendations for Nigeria as a panacea for poverty reduction which has persevere in spite of every efforts over the years. Among the recommendations made include: designing of poverty line for the entire geopolitical zone, stating target of poverty reduction within a time frame, and sincerely implementing and monitoring of strategies, programmes and policies.


Introduction
Since after the independence of Nigeria in1960, there have been myriad of problems ranging from low income, high unemployment, insufficient capital overheads, poor infrastructure, lack of relevant institutions like banks inclusivity, particularly for easy access to credit facilities, poor governmental institutions, low access to medication, insufficient and poor quality training centres, improper management of societal resources amongst others. This situation has persisted in spite of various development plans and programmes aimed at changing the ugly trend. It has hampered the expected degree of human and capital development and environmental restructuring needed to overcome poor living standard. Consequently, Nigeria as the most populated region in Africa is wallowing in abject poverty in spite of its abundant natural and mineral resources endowment.
Besides, the level of inequality that have been during the colonial era gradually rosedue to majority engaged in subsistence agriculture, lack of industries and the actions of the privileged few at the helm of affairswidened the gap between the poor and the rich. Studies by Kolenikov and Shorrocks (2003); UNU/WIDER (2000); Addison and Cornia (2001); Canagarajahet al, (1997); Kanbur and Lustig (1999) have shown the prevailing income inequality in developing countries in general and specifically in Nigeria which has contributed significantly to poverty situation. This income inequality is reinforced by actions of leaders and those closer to power that diverts societal resources for personal use, and as such deny the masses .of the benefits accruable from the distribution of national income. Unbelievable, in 1996 and, Nigeria was ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world with corrupt perception index of 0.69 and 1.75 respectively (Transparency International, 1996. But in 2009, 2010 and 2011, the corruption perception indices for Nigeria were respectively 2.5, 2.4 and 2.4. The World Bank (2012), stated that the poverty headcount of Nigeria is 62.6%. Poverty has really been raised by the actions of the leaders with respect to myopic perception and corruption.
The realization of the role of income inequality in developing countries as the major cause of poverty has been the propelling factors of policy makers to design programmes and policies aimed at closing the gap. The aspiration to ensure a decrease of income inequality and increasing the living standard led to various micro and macro approaches to poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria over the years. However, significant impact has not been achieved in Nigeria in spite of various efforts put in place.
The country which operates a federal system of government with three tiers-local, state and the federal government has attempted in various ways to promote positive socio-economic and political changes. This is because, it is the responsibility of the government to encourage and improve the material requisites of well-being of the society in view of their economic status. This intention requires sincere efforts on designing policies and programmes aimed at some reforms in the area of institution, fiscal operation, management of macroeconomic variables, more employment of resources, improvement in education and training that is capable of raising living standard.
Efforts in the development of the region have been on going in view of the articulated National Development Plans of 1962Plans of -68, 1970Plans of -74, 1975Plans of -80,1981 others. Yet the economy is not measuring up vis-a-vis its contemporaries. In recent past, attention was given to poverty eradication due to the rating of Nigeria as one of the poorest economies as it was ranked between 130-154th position in the Global 172 economies and in spite of having large deposit of oil as it occupied a position of one of the world largest producer of crude oil (Guardian, 2005).
The poverty level is estimated at over 70% of the population notwithstanding the activities put in place over the years. This situation has been climaxed by the recent destruction of lives and property due to the activities of insurgence in the country. Disgustingly, EarthTrend (2003), points that the population of Nigeria living on less than $1 per day is 70.2% while those living on less than $2 each day are 90.8%. This was when the exchange rate was about one hundred naira per dollar and the official price of a litre of fuel was N65. Presently, a dollar is overN470 in the parallel marketand the official pump price of a litre of fuel is above N145. The average Nigerians are really finding it difficult to have a meal instead of three square meal a day since the purchasing power has been drastically reduced by the prevailing economic quagmire and this has resulted to many abnormalities such as hunger, malnutrition, malnourishment and other poor health conditions that adversely retard over-all individual development and impedes living one's life span completely.
Nigerian population was estimated at 162 million by the World Bank (2011). An Economic Watch (2013) estimate of Nigeria population was 169, 282 million. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria occupies about 20% of total population. But the growth rate of the population is at variance with the rate of food production, which compelled the country to import. The cost of imported food is not easily affordable by the poor, leading to malnutrition, hunger and mental retardation among others.
The poverty milieu has worsened with the activities of the 'Boko Haram' terrorist group in the North-Eastern states of Nigeria where 270 girls were abducted from their school dormitory and many towns and villages sacked within the last four to five years, adding to the increasing number of internally displaced persons (IGP) in Nigeria. Also, the activity of the Niger-Delta Militants in the South-South region of the country adversely impacted on the crude-oil production and the exploitation. This has led to a sharp decline in foreign exchange earnings. The situation deteriorated due to plummetion of international oil prices to below 30 USD per barrel in the early 2016.
The adaption of the floating exchange rate in 2016 amidst the stoppage of official foreign exchange allocation for imports of 41 consumer goods saw consumer price index (CPI), which is the measure of inflation in Nigeria, rose up to 18.55% in the last quarter of 2016 from single digit figure recorded in early 2015.
As a result, Nigeria as a major import dependent nation lacked enough foreign exchange resources to import consumer and capital goods for poverty reduction and radical economic development. In view of this ugly episode in Nigeria over the years in spite of actions taken by the leaders, it is our intention to investigate a more practical approach to poverty reduction in Nigeria considering the success stories of other countries such as Malaysia, China and South Korea. In this regard, the paper is streamlined thus: section two focuses onpoverty in Nigeria some facts and statistics; government actions aimed at poverty alleviation is the section three, successful stories in reducing poverty: a comparative analysis is the section four; while section five is policy recommendations for Nigeria and conclusion.

Poverty in Nigeria: Some Facts and Statistics
Every leader in Nigeria has been aware of the high degree of poverty and the problem of 'growthlessness' in Nigeria and has put some actions directly or indirectly to change the trend but yet much has not been achieved. Actually, every problem has its solutions beside in consideration of the law of polarity-good and bad, problems and solutions and so on. Poverty has persevered in spite of all actions because the country has not applied the right and sustainable approaches that are specific to the economy. Besides, implementation and monitoring of poverty alleviation efforts have not been effective to enable desired results.
Poverty is really multidimensional as it encompasses a lot of things which retards the ability of one to live life fully and enjoy living. It includes lack of basic necessity of living, insecurity, lack of access for essentials and supporters of life. However, the United States Statement on poverty (June 1988), states "poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to; not having the land on which to grow one's food or a job to earn one's living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation".
Actually, the above are the part and parcel of the ailments and features of what is obtainable in Nigeria. There is denial of opportunity and choice of work, education, place of settlement andregular violation of human right by the leaders and the people. The average populace is not fully empowered to have a say on issues and policies affecting them. Inability to secure enough to feed self and family members have resulted to upsurge of different forms of crimes such as obtaining by tricks, robbery, corruption, ritual killing, kidnapping, prostitution amongst others. The situation compelled few Nigerians to accept being refugees in another country even when there is no war.In addition, the land ownership system cut-off many Nigerians from access to land for farming or erecting a living batcher and embargo on public sector employment in some establishments, poor infrastructure, non-conducive environment for business activity, epileptic power supply, lack of portable water, low investment in the country gave rise to inability to secure a job or delve into business so as to generate income to improve living standard. Besides, no bank credit facilities to assist indigent students or local entrepreneurs who want to improve education or business venture. Hence, the people of the country are caught up in the vicious circle of poverty.
The economy is dualised into rural and urban areas, and poverty exists in each but dominants in the rural area which harboured a large proportion of the population. National Survey of poverty as published by National Bureau of Statistic (2005) showed the national incidence of poverty rose between 1980-85 and 1992 to 1996.   Table 1 shows the persistent rise in poverty incidence, high population growth and poverty situation. The period of poverty increase coincide with the military leadership. Although the poverty incidence declined slightly in 2004 due to the activities of civilian government that commenced in 1999 nevertheless, the expected low poverty remains a mirage because of fiscal indiscipline, shortsightedness, nepotism, favouritism, corruption and greed.  Table 2 depicts the dominance of poverty situation in the rural area due to uneven development of the two sectors in spite of the fact that the larger proportion of the population reside in the rural area. This situation has led to incessant rural-urban movement; thereby brought about population density in the urban cities with attended pressure on social amenities, insufficient accommodation, frictional/disguise unemployment, crimes amongst others. Succinctly, the exodus of rural skilled people with their talents and ingenuityto urban area means creation of a vacuum which the cumulative causation helps to perpetuate poverty in the rural area.     A study by Ogwumike (2002) showed that some of the policies and programmes put in place prior to  Rural areas Credit facilities to support the establishment of cottage industries.
At the initial stage of each of the programmes, it was considered great as it focused on groups considered poor in Nigeria. But could not be sustained due to the peculiarity of the economy; coupled with macroeconomic distortions, inconsistent policies, nepotism, selfishness of operators and corruption which retarded goal attainment. Quite worrisome is that in spite of all the efforts, poverty has been on the increase. It was pointed out that even at the period when Nigeria witnessed economic growth; considerable poverty reduction was not achieved. Between 1985 and1992, gross domestic product (GDP) rose slightly, although aggregate poverty headcount level came down a little, but there was high level of inequality and the poor did not enjoy in the economic progress since the depth and severity of poverty could not significantly change ( Obadan, 2002;Uma et al , 2013). and revenues. It is from the aggregate statistics that calculation of rural net income per capita was done which formed a major source of official statistics used by the Chinese government in assessing rural welfare and related policy making. However, the programme was able to capture a good size of the poor but political actions made it to face some criticisms ( Park and Wang, 2001;Park et al, 2002;Meng, 2013) Reacting to the criticism in first round of poverty alleviation programme, the Leading Group