ABSTRACT
For the purpose of
clarity and operational reasons, this study was undertaken to investigate good
governance and poverty alleviation programme in Benue State with a focus to six
selected local government. Three specific objectives were formulated and three
research questions were set to guide the study. The major limitation of the
study was that the research was formally intended to study the whole local
governments in Benue State because of the cost of covering the whole local
governments alone six local governments were selected for the study. The study
reviewed its literature in a thematic format covering the basic concept of the
study and the entire variable that relates to the study objective. The study
adopted structural functionalism as a theoretical framework and survey design
as it research methodology. The population of the study was ……… and the sample
size is approximately 400. The used questionnaire as a method of data
collections and simple percentage and tables as a method of data analysis,
after the investigation the study found out that, Benue state is endowed with
immense agricultural potential with comparatively weak infrastructural base and
near assent private sector and incompetence, inefficiency, professional
misconduct, indolence, negligence, mismanagement, misappropriation of funds,
embezzlement of funds, fraud, favoritism, abuse of office for personal gains,
nepotism, corruption and general indiscipline have crippled any economic
development and poverty alleviation programme in Benue State. The study further
recommends prudent political leadership to galvanize the poverty alleviation
programme in other to achieve the set objective of the programme in Benue
State.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
In recent decades, poverty has evolved as the
single most daunting challenge confronting humanity. In Africa, the scourge of
poverty is not only deeply-rooted and widespread, but somewhat paradoxical.
This is so because, despite the upward trend in the average real growth rate
over the past five years, endemic poverty has persisted. Perhaps, nowhere else
in the African continent is the scourge more prevalent than in Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) where about 56.6 percent of its 936.1 million populations live
below the national poverty line (World Bank, 2013). Contemporary trends reveal
that, the depth of poverty – that is, how far incomes fall below the poverty
line – is greater in SSA than anywhere else in the world.
The issue of
poverty has, in the last two decades, become an intractable problem among the
governments of developing nations of Latin America, Asia and Africa that
constitute about two third of world population (World Bank, 2006). The mass
media, both local and international have sensitised the international community
to this plight. It is against this backdrop that the United Nations in
September 2000 constituted a global compact group to address the issue of
biting poverty ravaging the world. The outcome of the committee’s efforts is
the emergence of 15 years Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is binding
on all the governments of developing nations. Although it appears the whole
continent of Africa is vulnerable but this paper focuses on Nigeria
In Nigeria, the
problems of poverty is multi-faceted, among which are lack of access to good
health facilities, high infant mortality, lack of essential infrastructure,
unemployment and under-employment as well as endemic and entrenched corruption.
Thus, with about 69 percent of the poor living below the poverty line, that is,
about 112 million Nigerians in 2010 (NBS, 2010), it becomes quite worrisome.
More worrisome is the fact that, poverty situation in the state has shown a
rising tendency in the past couple of decades, accounting for the nation’s low
development indicators and its ranking among the poorest nations in the world
(OXFAM, 2003). Majority of Nigeria’s population live in poverty with
insufficient income to cover minimum standard of food, water, fuel, shelter,
medical care and schooling (World Bank, 1996).
Given the
nation’s endowment with natural resources, its poverty profile presents a sober
picture of a nation in decline. On the other hand, contemporary development
thinking since the 1990s has placed a high premium on democratic governance as
a catalyst for poverty reduction and sustainable development. The World Bank
(1992) viewed governance “as the means in which power is exercised in the
management of a state’s economic and social resources for development”. The
World Bank further averred that for development to succeed in any state there
must be sound development management, a well-run market economy, together with
an effective liberal democratic political regime (Cardoso, 2001). Thus, good
governance has come to be associated with liberal democracy as a necessary
element for sustainable development (UNRISD, 2000). Indeed, governance is a
broad concept covering political, economic and social dimensions.
Operating in
three major domains – the state, civil society and private sector, governance
reflects all the ways in which societies distribute power, and manage public
resources and problems (Gettu, 2001). Therefore, good governance is central to
national development (Corkery, Land and Bossuyt, 1995). It is in light of the above that the
present attempts to investigate the impact of good governance and poverty
alleviation in Nigeria with a focus on selected local governments in Benue
state from 2015 to 2016.
1.2
Statement
of the Problem
The issue of
poverty presents a case of paradox in Nigeria. Although the state is abundantly
rich in land, human and natural resources, yet more than 75 percent of her 160
million people including women, youths and children residing in the rural
communities still live below poverty line (Oshewolo, 2010). Nigeria is the
world’s largest community of black race, the most populous nation in Africa and
the 7th in the world. An oil rich state, with her 2.5million barrel
per day, Nigeria ranks as Africa’s largest oil producing nation and the 6th
position in the world.
Apart from oil,
Nigeria also has a large deposit of gas which is adjudged to be greater than
oil. Since her oil discovery in the early 1970s till 2005, Nigeria has earned
over N3.2trillion from oil exploration (World Bank, 2008). This figure rose
between 2009 and 2010 when she realised US$196billion within four years
(National Bureau of Statistics, 2010). Besides oil and gas, Nigeria has 37
other solid mineral deposits (yet to be explored) in commercial quantity (FOS,
2009). Despite her enormous natural endowment and massive wealth, Nigeria is
still surprisingly, included among the 50 states of the world where poverty
level is still unreasonably high (CBN Brief, 2002).
According to the
statistics released by the World Bank and the IMF, Nigeria ranked 152nd
among states with the lowest Human
Development Index (HDI), 54th among 77 other developing nations where poverty
level remains high and upward swinging (UNDP, 1998, p.26; Sanni, 2003, p.10).
The National Bureau of Statistics (2012) also observes that the number of
people living in poverty in Nigeria has risen from 54.7% in 2004 to 60.9% in
2010 translating to 112 million poverty-infested Nigerians despite the 7.6%
growth claim by the government.
The Punch
newspaper of Wednesday, July16, 2008 reported that over 24 milion Nigerian
youths are jobless while about 1.6 million out of over 16 million employed
youths were under-employed (National Manpower Board, 2008; National Bureau of
Statistics, 2008). Besides, the Economist (2006, p.7) in its survey also
offered a fresh perspective to Nigeria’s poverty profile. It states, “more than
4 out of 10 Nigerians live on less than N1, 320 per capital per month”. This is
approximately US$8.2 per month or 27cent per day which, according to UNDP
barely provides for a quarter of nutritional requirements of a healthy living.
The report further added that “life expectancy is pegged at 50.1years while
infant mortality rate is 112 per 1000 births; adult literacy 59.5% and access
to clean water is 50%” respectively.
In Nigeria as in
other developing nations, there is a geographic dimension to poverty issue as
can be seen by its level of pervasiveness in the rural settings than in the
urban centres. According to Aigbokhan (2000) and FOS (2004), about 63.8% of
Nigeria’s population translating to about 80million people including women,
youths and children are resident in the villages and are poor.” Oshewolo (2010) also observed that in 2004, the urban
population with access to water was 67% whereas it was 31% in the rural
communities.
The development
situations in the rural areas are even made worse as basic infrastructural
facilities are non- available or are in state of disrepair. There are no good
roads, no standard school, no adequately equipped hospital; which depicts
absence of government. This situation has induced mass rural-urban migration
which leads to mass un-employment with its attendant social ills such as armed
robbery, hired assassination, drug abuse, raping, prostitution, teenage
abortion, ritual murder; advance-fee-fraud and the most recent development,
kidnapping and terrorism. All these have contributed largely to making Nigeria
unsafe for both the rich and the poor.
Poverty, like an
elephant, is more easily recognised than defined (Aboyade, 1975). Notwithstanding
its multidimensional nature that lent it to various controversial definitions,
poverty has been defined by the World Bank (2004) as that level of income below which a
certain percentage of the population is to live.
The UNDP (2009)
provided an all-embracing definition of poverty as “denial of choices and
opportunity, a violation of human dignity, lack of basic capacity to
participate effectively in the society, not having enough to feed, to cloth a
family, not having access to school and health facilities, lack of land to farm
or employment to earn a living, not having access to credit facility,
insecurity, discrimination and exclusion of individuals, households and
communities; susceptibility to violence, living on marginal or fragile environments
without access to clean water or good sanitation”.
Previous studies
focused on how the various poverty alleviation programmes of government, have
impacted on the general populace by looking at poverty alleviation measures put
in place by successive governments and how these programmes have impacted
positively or negatively, on the people. However this study focuses on poverty
alleviation programmes from the perspective of rural people, who constitute
over 70% of Nigeria’s population and prescribe realistic poverty alleviation
programmes that would lift the people out of the abyss of poverty scourge. The
various poverty alleviation measures have been critically examined as models of
development and identified with the target population, (rural and urban
dwellers), in terms of what package of poverty alleviation programme, would
benefit the rural masses and the poor ones in the urban areas. The research investigates new orientation in
the partnership between policy makers and the masses, whom poverty alleviation
programmes are targeted, with a view to making the conception of such policies
to be masses or consumer based, in order to ensure that policy package designed
by the masses and included in the government’s package are aimed at solving
their poverty induced problems. Based on the foregoing, this study provokes the following research
questions:
1.3 Research questions
The following research questions were formulated:
1) How
did good governance impact on poverty alleviation in Benue state between 2015
and 2017?
2) To
what extent did good governance contribute toward agricultural development and
poverty alleviation in Benue state between 2015 and 2017?
3) How
did good governance bring about improved foreign direct investement in
agriculture towards poverty alleviation in Benue state between 2015 and 2017?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The specific objectives of the study are
as follows:
1) To
ascertain the impact of good governance on poverty alleviation in Benue state
between 2015 and 2017.
2) To
Evaluate the extent good governance contributed towards agricultural
development and poverty alleviation in Benue state between 2015 and 2017.
3)
To Determine how good governance
influenced foreign direct investment in agriculture towards Poverty alleviation
in Benue state between 2015 and 2017.
1.5
Significance of the Study
The significance of this research will
manifest in both theoretical and practical levels, since it will be useful to
our society where poverty alleviation and good
governance has become a necessity due to the state of the nation after the
battered condition the military era left it in. At the theoretical level, the study will
provide scholars and commentators with the idea and knowledge about good governance in Benue state.
Also, contributions from this study will not only consolidate
the existing body of knowledge in our discipline but will also serve as a
veritable reference material to students, academics, researchers and others who
have interest in this issue under study. This research study
will equally serve as a good reading material for all those who seek knowledge,
especially those who desire to enrich their knowledge on the issues related
with this research study.
In its practical aspect, the value of this
study will, in the first place, provide Nigerian leaders with the fundamental reliability and
understanding of the good governance in Benue state, thereby keeping them abreast on the possible measures suitable for the promotion of state at
large. Secondly, this study
will also be more beneficial to the younger generation, because it will serve as a basis for building structures that will promote the
aspirations, especially those who are aspiring for leadership
positions. Thirdly, this research study will also be beneficial to policy makers in
general, for adequate integration of more women and the younger generation into
the decision making process.
1.6 Hypotheses
1) Good
governance has insignificant impact on poverty alleviation in Benue state
between 2015 and 2017 because of inadequate investment in agricultural
technology.
2) Good
governance did not contribute significantly towards agricultural development
and poverty alleviation in Benue state between 2015 and 2017 because of
inadequate engagement of youths.
3) Good
governance did not significantly influence foreign direct investment in
agriculture towards poverty
alleviation in Benue state between 2015 and 2017 because of inadequate policy.
1.7 GAP
IN LITERATURE
In a bid to
understand the impact
of good governance and poverty alleviation in Benue state a
review of the pertinent literature by scholars who have written on the subject
matter is necessary to investigate how Benue state have been able
to contribute
towards poverty alleviation through agricultural empowerment between 2015 and
2016.
Poverty is a
global phenomenon which affects continents, nations, and people differently. It
afflicts people in various depth and levels at different times and phases of
existence. There is no nation that is absolutely free from poverty. Nigeria is
the most populous African country and the country reflects most of activities
in Africa. Nigeria reflects most parts of Africa in that it inherited arbitrary
state boundaries from its colonial age and was under military authoritarianism
for most part of its existence as a nation, said of Nigeria that “it earned
around US$500 billion in oil revenues since the 1970s, yet remains mired in
poverty”(Alumona, 2009:2) Barely, some
years after independence, hope and expectations were high on the new emerging
state that has been under the stranglehold of colonialism for many decades
given its huge resource endowment-human and material resources In buttressing the above analysis, Innocent
et all Omotola (2014) asserts that poverty as a global phenomenon but admits
that the intensity and scale vary from one society to another. It asserts that
there is widespread poverty in Nigeria despite its great endowments. The paper
notes that successive regimes in Nigeria have been introducing different
programmes to alleviate poverty. It established a link between poverty
alleviation programmes (strategies) and governance and blamed the failure of
such programmes on absence of good governance.
Consequently, it was discovered that
there are various opinions to the explanation of poverty in Nigeria. While some
see poverty as the lack of basic amenities, others see poverty as poor
investment in human capital on the whole; there was a convergence among
different authors that Nigerians are poor. The survey study shows that the
awareness level of NAPEP and her programmes are quite okay, but the
implementation level remains very minimal in Ogbadibo LGA. (Agbara; 2016)
Basically, The concept of ‘good governance’ conveys
the qualitative dimension of governance that indicates effective, efficient,
participative, or democratic form of government which is responsible for
transparent and accountable management of human, natural, economic and
financial resources for equitable and sustainable development. Addition of the
adjective ‘good’ to governance has given a sense of enhancement and almost
become an obsession in the recent debates on international development and
public administration in developing countries. (Lutfor, 2016).
From all these extent, literature has failed to
articulate the impact
of good governance and poverty alleviation in Nigeria with a focus of selected
local governments in Benue state from 2015 to 2016.
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