-
Poverty And The Nigerian Economy
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
-
-
-
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Poverty has many aspects
of perception. Some people or most people take poverty as deprivation
and deficiency. But poverty is a phenomenon which has historical,
social, psychological, cultural and international dimension, these means
that poverty’s definition depends on the angle the person looking at it
looks at it.
As there are variations in the living standard of
people round the world the same way the economic growth rates vary from
one nation to another. Some countries are poor; some are fairly well off
while others are rich. However as everything is relative so is poverty,
what most people in the united states today see as stark poverty would
be seen as luxury in some parts of Asia and Africa.
The key variables
by which the poor can be singled out are: food, income, health,
freedom, justice, equity etc. And all these variables mentioned above
are the key challenges facing our beloved country Nigeria today. But the
key challenge facing Nigeria and other developing countries is how the
country can sustainably feed her population and Nigeria’s population is
over 140 million people.
Although Nigeria has one of the world’s
biggest economic growth rate ( averaging 7.4% over the last decade) and
also blessed with plenty of natural resources such as oil, but still it
retains a high level of poverty with 63% living below $1 daily. When one
talks about poverty in Nigeria it knows no bound as it is visible in
all aspects and segments of the society. Poverty is not just limited in
the rural areas it is also evident in the urban areas slums in the
country.
As said earlier poverty is relative and also physical. It is
physical because one can note its effects on the people that are
affected by poverty and it is relative because what is regarded as
poverty in some nations can be seen in other nations as luxury.
The
poor are those that have limited and insufficient food, poor clothing,
live in crowded and dirty shelter (Galbraith 1995), cannot afford
medical care and recreations, cannot meet family and community
obligations and other necessities of life. When we come home there is no
precise definition or explanation needed for an individual to know what
poverty is, as many people cannot afford decent food ,medical care,
recreation, decent shelter and clothing meet up with family obligations
etc, no wonder poverty is regarded as a form of oppression (UNDP
conference Report,15-17 March 2011).
Poverty means more than been
impoverished and more than just lacking financial means, it is an
overall condition of inadequacy, lack and scarcity, deficiency of
economic, political and social resources. These are a broader
perspective of poverty which reflects its true dimensions. Therefore
someone can be said to be in poverty if the person’s income and
resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to
exclude them from having a standard of living which is regarded as
acceptable by the society generally.
Poverty is not a respecter of
creed, race or educated and uneducated, it affects all when it strikes.
Nigeria is a country that enjoys the bountiful environment of nature and
yet cannot appropriate the natural resources to its advantage. It is
greatly ironic that at the last two decades Nigeria has received over
$300 billion on oil and gas revenue and at the same time the population
of the critically poor has been doubled. Nigeria has been described as a
paradox by the World Bank (1996) in the sense that the poverty level in
Nigeria contradicts the country’s immense wealth. Nigeria retrogressed
into been one of the 25 poorest countries at the threshold of the 21st
century whereas she was among the richest 50 in the early 1970s.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
-
-
ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This research study by means of robust statistical analysis investigated the poverty situation in Nigeria and how it affects the citizens and the economy at large. This research was taken in a period of 25 years which is from 1985 – 2010. The ordinary least square method was used to investigate this work.The empirical analysis carried out showed that the Nigerian economy has changed from a diversified economy to a mono economy because of the over dependence of the oil sector and this has ... Continue reading---
