THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN POVERTY ALLIVIATION IN NIGERIA A CASE STUDY OF OYO STATE ABSTRACT Poverty, either as a plague or cause of other specific under development ailments, afflicts Nigeria as it does other Nations of the World. The high level of prevalence in the country, which has attained an endemic nature is becoming worrisome. Poverty has made Nigeria to attain an unenviable status such that no Government (no matter the level), Organisation, Community, Clan or Family can survive effectively without introducing one kind of poverty reduction effort or the other. Despite the various poverty alleviation programmes by successive governments, and the huge budgeting outlays attached to these programmes, the people have remained poor. The importance of this Project the role of Government in poverty alleviation in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. This is a very active field of research that interest private individuals, international Bodies and the Government. In the course of the study, related literature on poverty and poverty reduction efforts (strategies and programmes) were intensively and extensively reviewed and relevant information and ideas obtained for the research. The study also utilised the survey approach and chi-square to collect, collate, analyse and present data respectively. The findings reveal that poverty reduction strategies currently adopted in oyo include: Provision of micro credits, Healthcare delivery; Capacity building; Resource development through promotion of improved production technology; Provision of agricultural supports such as seedlings, fertilizers, etc. We also found that sufficient fund was not available to poverty reduction agencies to implement their programmes as the findings reveal that insufficient funding was listed as the severest problem by the respondents. It was further revealed that such insufficient funding is even aggravated by duplication of efforts. In effect, funds available were spread too thin amongst the agencies and programmes. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY 1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF STUDY 1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS 1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF POVERTY TYPES, CAUSES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF POVERTY POVERTY ALLEVIATION STRATEGIES ROLES OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION (NGOS) AND COMMUNITY BASED ORGANISATIONS (CBOS) IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY AND POVERTY STATUS IN NIGERIA CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY INTRODUCTION RESEARCH LOCALITY SAMPLE SIZE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE 3.4 INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION PRESENTATION OF DATA 3.5 THE CHI-SQUARE (X2) 3.6 VALIDATION OF THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENT CHAPTER FOUR PRESENTATION AND ANALYSES OF DATA 4.1 INTRODUCTION 4.2 TESTING OF HYPOTHESES 4.3 ANALYSES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4.4 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 5.2 CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES APPENDIX A AGENCIES QUESTIONNAIRE CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Poverty is a universal problem facing mankind, with serious consequences. It can be described as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which lacks universally accepted definition. For instance, its economic dimension centres on nature and level of material deprivations which afflict the poor, and distinguishes them from the non-poor. As there are varying divergent views on the concept of poverty, we could observe that poverty exists when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs. In Africa, and in particular Nigeria; the colonialists imposed capitalistic economic system which allowed for exploitation and domination of the rich individuals and companies in the available resources including exploiting the labour of others to increase their wealth. Besides, when the colonialists shifted emphasis from food crops to cash crops as deliberate government\u2019s policy in order to serve the needs of the industries in the metropolitan Europe, shortage of food began to manifest amongst the rural dwellers who constituted 80% of the country\u2019s population. Furthermore, the lack of commitments and focused leadership at all levels of governments, daily eroded value systems and impoverished the people; to the extent of the deprivations, prevalent hunger, disease, poverty and dearth in infrastructural development and amenities. The combination of the economic and political structures inherited by post independent African countries, especially Nigeria had paved way for social crises which the new leaders had failed to successfully address in most cases, the major population of Nigerians who live in rural areas had continued to experience low quality of life, misery, hopelessness scarcity of food, lack of shelter, poor health care delivery systems, high infant mortality rate, high level of illiteracy and above all, manifesting characteristics of under-development in all the ramifications. No doubt all these unenviable scorecards have continued to bring pressure on leadership. In these regards, the Federal Government of Nigeria had designed several programmes aimed at alleviating poverty and improving the living conditions of its people. Some of these programmes since the 1970s include: All these are geared towards raising the living standards of rural people and the urban dwellers, with the anticipated peace, harmony and development resulting thereafter. Nigeria is a country of about 120 million people, covering 4470km coastlines with enormous resources of natural gas and coal, vast array of solid minerals like gold, coal, tin, kaolin, columbite, zinc, limestone; etc. One of the largest resources of tropical timbers, varied vegetation and topography with favourable climatic condition that require the growing of a wide range of food and cash crops all the year round, Nigeria is one of the continent\u2019s poles of development. She is in a position to influence development in both West African sub-region and Africa in general. Therefore, the rating of Nigeria as one of the poorest in Africa and yet with other unenviable indices of underdevelopment calls for the need for political leaders to rise to these challenges and turn things around for the better. Despite the various poverty alleviation programmes by successive governments, and the huge budgeting outlays attached to these programmes, the rural areas and the people have remained poor. Some of the features of this poverty are lack of basic social amenities, malnutrition, disease and ignorance. It is argued that all these problems resulting from policy inconsistencies, lack of political will, bureaucratic red tape, lack of transparency in business of government, lack of consumer oriented consultations in policy initiation or formulation, lack of capacity for policy implementation, obstacles arising from political and social considerations, poor leadership, inadequate support institutions and resources for policy implementation; all these are exacerbated by political instability and social crises. With these score cards, Nigeria will not be able to sustain a stable political system which would be supported by its citizens for accelerated development, which means that Nigeria would not be able to offer the desired leadership expected in West African sub-region and Africa in general; and the central role as a development centre and pole in international affairs would remain a mirage. Economic development considers human living conditions especially the individual well being as a more important focus of attention than the institutions and organizations within the social system (Ukpong 1994). Therefore economists of development persuasion are interested basically not only in the wealth of nations the highlights of which appear in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and aggregate economic indicators but also, they are interested in how the wealth is distributed among individuals and groups of people in a country or if there is inequality in the distribution of available resources within a country even if that country is endowed by adequate resources. There is every likelihood that few people will be enjoying better living conditions while the majority would be languishing in a state of abject poverty, more problematic conditions arise in a situation whereby the country\u2019s material and human resources are under-utilised and unevenly distributed among the different component units of the country and to the extent that what it has cannot satisfy the yearnings and aspiration of the generality of the people who want to use them. Nigeria is faced with most of these problems. That is why Nigeria has been ranked as one of the poorest countries of the world. Today in Nigeria, one of the principal concerns of both the federal and state governments is the formulation and execution of policies designed to propel the nation\u2019s economy to push up per capita output. It is expected that the rising output should raise the incomes of most Nigerians every year. Yet poverty not only persists, but also tends to exacerbate; clearly the rate of poverty is greater in recent times than in the past. Many attempts have been made by both the Federal and State governments to reduce the incidence of poverty and inequality in Nigeria. It is the objective of this research study therefore, to explore the whole concept of poverty, causes and consequences of poverty and inequality, and the role of Oyo state Government in tackling the problems which poverty and underdevelopment had created. Over the decades, empirical statistics from the research findings on the level of poverty, especially at the rural setting shows that poverty had continued to exist and indeed degrade as well as ravaged the quality of life of the people in the rural areas in Nigeria. Worried by this trend, successive Governments had tried to tackle poverty, through the design and implementation of several poverty alleviation measures aimed at stemming the ugly trend of poverty in the land. Unfortunately, the quality of life of the majority of Nigerians had remained unenviable and embarrassingly low, despite the huge budgetary allocations by these governments to these poverty alleviation programmes. Reports from World Bank, WHO, and various NGOs home based and abroad had at various times confirmed the worsening economic and social situations in Nigeria with the unbelievable ratings as 23rd poorest country in the world, and the 2nd most corrupt country in the conduct of government business (courtesy of Transparency International). All these had been, in spite of the fact that, Nigeria is the current 6th World\u2019s largest producer of crude oil and with the greatest endowments in solid minerals, agricultural potentials and human capital of over 120 million people. 1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Nigerians and observers are anxious to know the impact of huge financial allocations to various poverty alleviation programmes, since the 1970s, as the problem to be addressed had continued to worsen, deteriorate and further afflict more Nigerians with the end not in sight. Besides, government needs to know why her poverty alleviation programmes had not yielded the desired impact on the masses, so as to enable her approach the poverty issue more programmatically. This study therefore, identified the problems responsible for the persistence of hunger, disease and squalor in the rural communities in Nigeria, despite efforts by governments to solve them. The study has made recommendations that will assist the government through the policy matters, to come out with more realistic, implementable and rural based programme that would address the issue of poverty in Nigeria. This study would provide the required clues for the Oyo state government to tackle the poverty problems at the root. And when this is achieved there will be improved social and political stability, which will stimulate and enhance economic growth development and improved welfare for the people. 1.3 Objectives of the Study The broad objective of the study is to carry out a comprehensive review of the causes of poverty in Oyo State and identify strategies that can be used to reduce the poverty levels. The specific objectives are as follows. 1.4 Research Hypotheses HO: Poverty Reduction Strategies in Oyo State have not succeeded in eradicating poverty. H1: Poverty Reduction Strategies in Nigeria have succeeded in eradicating poverty. 1.5 Research questions The following constitute research questions for this study which include the following:- Q1. What are the core responsibilities of Oyo state government on poverty alleviation? Q2. Is there sufficiency of funds to implement poverty reduction programmes in Oyo state? Q3. What are the problems confronting poverty reduction activities in Oyo State? 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY The role of Government in the alleviation of poverty of it people cannot be overemphasized. In the developing world where poverty has laid siege on over time, the governments together international community collaborate to seek an end to this menace or to reduce it to a barest minimum. In this regard significance of study will be both on the theoretical levels and practical levels. Theoretically, this study seeks to highlight and widen scholarly perceptions of poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria. Practically this study will be a response to the intellectual challenges involved in enhancing an understanding of the unending concept of poverty in Oyo state. Also, this study will be of vital importance to scholars on poverty reduction and the global reading public, and as such serve as a further take off point for future inquiry in the study under review. 1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF STUDY The study is restricted to analyzing the roles of the Government and the effects of all poverty alleviation programmes on the people based on the perception of Oyo Government\u2019s poverty alleviation workers, NGOs that are into poverty eradication programmes in Oyo State and finally the present and past benefactors of various poverty alleviation programmes. The researcher also encountered some constraints, which limited the scope of the study. These constraints include but are not limited to the following. a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study. Illiteracy also formed a barrier hence not everybody given a questionnaire were able to fill the form correctly. 1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS We define some basic terminology that would be of essence in this research. ALLEVIATION: Relieve from a burden which is impinging on the comfort of man, alleviation from health problem, illiteracy, from poor feeding, clothing etc. PROGRAMMES: A plan or set of strategies, activities and projects proposed to be put in place to serve a set of related problem to which human, material and financial resources are committed in order to achieve its objective. YOUTH: This is seen as young people considered as a group, the nation\u2019s youth, the youth of today, youth employment. (Hornby, 2000). Also youth is the period of life during which the growing individual make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Encyclopedia American P. 175). To this study, youth can be seen as the people who fall within age of 18 and 45 years. POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMME: A democratic society cannot be built when a large number of people are so poor that they are denied their choice due to lack of opportunities to live a tolerable life. Hence poverty alleviation programmes are programmes established by government (Federal, State or Local government) to eradicate of minimize poverty. It is aimed at monitoring and coordinating as well as assisting government in eradicating poverty to avoid duplication of efforts and resources. 1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows Chapter one is concerned with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.