Introduction
1.1 Background Of The Study
Poverty is a social problem in which a country is face with cultural, social, political, economic and environmental deprivations. In other words, it is a state of involuntary deprivation to which a person, household, community or nation can be subjected. In recent times, scholars have pointed out that there are reinforcing vicious circles that keep families, regions and countries poor and unable to contribute to national growth (Perry et al, 2006; Okoye and Onyukwu, 2007). In developing countries, poverty level has been on the increase. In Nigeria, for example, the situation has worsened since the late 1990s and can be best described as “inflammable”. As Nnamadi (2003; 60) puts it, poverty in Nigeria has reached an alarming level and has been rising steadily not exponentially.
Aware of the grave consequences of poverty, successive Nigerian governments have designed and implemented numerous policies to tackle the scourge. However, every effort towards this direction has not yielded the expected results. Some believe that bad governance, corruption, low productivity, unemployment, debt-burden and conflicts are associated to failure of poverty eradication. Others attributed the high level of poverty to macro-economic distortion, globalization, high population growth rate and poor human resources development. It is generally believed that acute poverty can be reduced or eradicated through effective policy measure.
The problem of poverty in African is one that has over the years engaged the attention of the international community, governmental and non-governmental organizations including western and African scholars indeed. The issues of poverty and poverty reduction have been a focus of numerous researchers’ discussion, its debates and implementations of the various programmes. In discussing any issue that relates to poverty, one must cast back his mind to the days of the early scholars who contributed immensely on the topic (poverty and poverty alleviation).
According to Anikpo (1995), poverty is the history process of individuals or groups being forcefully eliminated from control of the decision-making machinery that determines the production and distribution of resource in a society. He further explains that poverty manifest in various forms, such as hunger, lack of food, good drinking water, clothes, shelters, good health, poor education and distribution of resources coupled with monopoly of the machinery of decision-making through coercive state apparatus.
The concept of poverty and material deprivation is a critical one in contemporary social discussions. Social sciences literature is replete with attempt by economics and other social scientists to conceptualize the phenomenon. Poverty has economic, social and political ramifications. The poor are materially deprived, socially alienated and politically excommunicated. Basically, poverty has been conceptualized in the following ways;
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