Poverty is a phenomenon that has ravaged the world and
more importantly the developing world. So vast is its influence that two third
of the world’s population are drowning in its waters with a blur hope of
respite. The World Bank views poverty as “the lack of what is necessary for material
well-being-especially food, but also housing, clothing, land, and other assets.
In other words, poverty is the lack of multiple resources that leads to hunger and
physical deprivation”. Over 1.2billion of the world’s population strive and
at the very end fail to have their needs met.
Poverty has the world at its feet and leaders at the
edge of their seats trying so hard to keep the malaise at bay, and as such,
necessitated its inclusion among the MDGs being at the top of the goals.
Without doubts, the dastard effects of poverty on the well being of people acts
as a counteractive agent to all forms of policies aimed at growth and
development because as the saying goes, ‘‘an hungry man is an angry man’’, and
quite apparently, a laborer’s productivity will be low; children will learn at
a slower rate, social vices will soar and the living standards of people will
be nothing to write home about. ‘’
Poverty is a global phenomenon, which affects continents, nations and peoples
differently. It afflicts people in various depths and levels, at different
times and phases of existence. There is no nation that is absolutely free from
poverty’’ (Oyebola O, 2003). This makes it a global objective and therefore,
it becomes imperative for all to ensure the sanitization of our environment
from this ill.
‘‘Cut global poverty in half by 2015
- this is one of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. While a few
large developing countries have made exceptional progress in reaching this
goal, others will fall far short. Why, then, are some countries doing better
than others’’, (OECD). With regards to evidences
from Nigeria, a country with a large population; abundant human and mineral
resources, the incidence of poverty has rather been termed paradoxical relative
to the riches it possess. ‘‘Nigeria,
ranked among the 25 poorest countries in the world, started its independent
nationhood with poverty level of barely 15% of its population in 1960 and is
today struggling to bring it down from about 70% of its current teeming
population of about 160 million which lives below $1.25 a day’’ (Oyebola,
2003). About 70% of the poverty stricken people live in rural areas where
government negligent of basic amenities is evident - Illiteracy, decaying
health care clinics with under-stuffed drugs, malnourishment of children,
inaccessibility to portable drinking water and lack of basic infrastructures,
all indicators of poverty, have been the order of the day in these places.
Having realized the gravity of the issue, no Nigerian
government, military or civilian, has failed in developing programs to
alleviate these hardships. Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), the Green
Revolution, Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN), Directorate of Food Roads and Rural
Infrastructure (DFFRI), Nigerian Agricultural Land Development Authority
(NALDA), Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP), Better Life for Rural
Women, Family Support Programme (FSP) and National Poverty Eradication Programme
(NAPEP) have all been policies aimed at alleviating poverty through rural
agriculture productivity, loans to finance SMEs, low cost housing development,
women empowerment, and provision of infrastructures. However, the sole emphasis
should be on the progress attained as a result of these rather than the number
of programs. The stark truth is that the performance of this multiple
initiatives has been below par. A foremost Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, in
his assessment concluded that the programmes have created more food for thought
than food for the stomach. Corruption, bad governance, improper projections
among others, has been reasons attributed for the failure of these programs. Why
have we continued to chase shadows in the pursuance of this seemingly elusive
goal? Is there a way forward?
In stark contrast, a level of
relative success has been achieved in the bid to reduce poverty to its barest
minimum. With China at the forefront, Indonesia, Vietnam and in Africa; Ghana,
Rwanda, Ethiopia have all made significant improvements in the fight to keep
poverty at bay through various policy measures. A study of China’s situation
has shown that the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005
prices has dropped from 835 million in 1981 to 207 million in 2005. The largest
share of this success goes to the agricultural sector as ‘’growth in agriculture over 1981-2004 had about four times the impact on
national poverty as growth in manufacturing or services’’ (Chen, 2007).
With more than two-thirds of the world’s poor living
in rural areas, increased rural incomes is a must for sustained poverty
reduction and reduced hunger. And since agriculture is the largest employer of
labour in rural areas, serves as the mainstay of a vibrant industrial and manufacturing
sector, it only becomes rational that it be given due attention. In light of
this, I believe other developing countries and most
importantly Nigeria, can emulate this enviable success by resuscitating her
once vibrant but now dormant agricultural sector. Nigeria should further ensure
the vigorous implementation of the ongoing Fadama Project, a World Bank
initiative, which is geared towards agricultural productivity and rural
development. Rural education on the use of farm implements and farm management,
irrigation and extension services, provision of low cost farming inputs,
credit-facilities, improved infrastructures, are among others the initiatives
of the project which must be embraced totally to increase rural employment and
productivity, and subsequently increase rural incomes. And as an implication,
provide food on the table of most homes thereby reducing hunger and starvation.
There is no doubt that poverty, if not completely
eradicated, can be effectively subdued. A filled stomach leads to a happy
people, a productive nation and the actualization of dreams and potentials. It
is a fight for all. Stand for change.
