CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
One of the primary purposes of every government is to improve the
welfare of its citizenry. The basic idea of welfarism encompasses all
concerted efforts directed towards the betterment and the improvement of
the living standard of the people thereby achieving economic
development. Nigeria is a country endowed with abundant human, material
and natural resources. These vast resources are capable of forming a
solid base for socioeconomic development, granted political leadership,
good governance and exemplary leadership as well as the development in
human skills. Nigeria has a high potential of becoming a great nation.
At independence, Nigeria had a high expectation of launching into a
take-off stage within a reasonable period of time. However, the economy
was dualistic with a large traditional agricultural-based rural sector
and a small modern urban sector. Most of the manufacturing industries
and almost all the modern infrastructures were located in the urban
areas. The majority of the people lived and farmed in the rural areas
with little or no economic/social infrastructure, neither had they the
required skills to develop themselves.
The developmental challenges that face the post-independence
government were enormous. These developmental challenges included at the
minimum, the provision of education and health services to the people,
the provision of social and economic infrastructures to the vast
majority of the people, the management of the vast human and material
resources and the development of people’s skills toward enhancing their
economic wellbeing. It is worth noting that the manner in which some of
these challenges were addressed was the adoption of a four-year demand
management economic policy in the form of economic stabilization Act of
1982, the austerity programme of 1984 and the National Economic
Emergency Measures of 1985 for economic recovery and self-reliance. But
all had only marginal effects because of lack of continuity in past
policies. And a two-year Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) had to be
adopted to broaden the productive and resource base of the economy,
eliminate distortion, reduce the role of government, encourage
competition and make the economy self-reliant.
The inability of SAP to achieve its stated objectives was attributed
to its short-time frame, and the poor sequencing of its reform, couple
with the general poor implementation of policies, policy instability and
lack of political will of most administration to continue with the
existing policies.
It is obvious that due to policy errors, stay-maid by non-continuity
in the existing policies of the past, the Nigerian economy suffered from
fundamental structural defects and remained in a persistent state of
disequilibrium. The productive and technological base was weak due to
non-policy programmes on the development of people’s potentials,
initiative and skills, the infrastructures that were urban-based were
poor, inadequate and lack of maintenance, the effectiveness of
incentives was low, giving rise to inadequate utilization of the factors
of production.
The need for policy redirection in Nigeria became more obvious with
the revelation of the consequence of the past policy errors. This policy
redirection becomes imperative because, the improvement in the living
condition of the people in every nation is often the major concern of
every good government. Emphasis were therefore redirected on policy
programmes that will develop the people’s skills, initiative, creativity
and potentials with a view of empowering them to become economically
productive and self-reliance mainly because of
The problem of rural/urban migration which has reduced the number of youthful and vibrant members of the rural community.
The reduction of the pressure poor people have on their
representatives in government as well as their local council
administration.
The reduction in the number of unemployed that work in the agricultural sector in most rural areas.
The ever increasing number of the poor in the country.
Statistics shows, that this high level of poverty ranges between
65-75 percent in rural areas, indeed this percentage of the poor have
been increasing over the decades in the country. At any rate, it is the
aforementioned reasons that policy programmes on vocational skills
acquisition and youth empowerment for self-reliance, self-development
and self-sustenance has become an important concerned of every
government in Nigeria. According to Prof Jery Gana, this concerned
becomes distinct pre-occupation and actually attain the highest priority
rating under the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida. To him,
never before had the country witnessed the kind of concerted and
comprehensive war which the administration relentlessly wedged against
the rural poverty, against the deprivation of the people and against the
powerlessness of the people.
As a matter of fact, until the mid-1980s there was no comprehensive
national policy on youth empowerment, vocational skills
development/acquisition for self-reliance, although various sectoral
policies often touched on human development. Yet there has been effort
to fashion these desperate ideas of human development via skills
acquisition for youth into appropriate objectives and coherent
strategies and action for empowerment in Nigeria.
It is in realization of the above that the government of General
Ibrahirn Babangida through the National Directorate of Employment (NDE)
made ‘self reliance’ the core of its policy programme. Thus, the
Directorate apart from vocational skills development and youth
empowerment was also charged with responsibility of ‘creating the
enabling environment that will allow the youth to release their creative
energies and exercise their initiative in pursuing their developmental
objectives”. Taken as its first value, the creation of enabling
environment will involve mobilizing the people, putting in place ‘all
the skills acquisition/training facilities the people needed to pursue
and/or achieve their developmental objectives.
The Directorate continued with its skill acquisition and empowerment
programme. But as has been the practice of non-continuity in the
existing policies, the Obasanjo administration in 2002 introduced the
National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) with self-reliance as its
core objective. Thus, NAPEP’s chief aim is skill acquisition and youth
empowerment.
Expectedly, NAPEP has key objectives and activities of vocational
skills development/acquisition and empowerment of Nigerian youth for
self-reliance, self-sustenance and self employment thus uplifting their
socio-economic wellbeing. The program seeks to address the twin problems
of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.
1.1 National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP)
NAPEP was established in 2001. Different ministries and agencies
were recognized as core poverty alleviation ministries and agencies.
Some of these ministries and agencies are: Agricultural and Rural
Development, Education, water resources, Industry, employment, labor and
productivity.
Women affairs and youth development, health, NACRDB, NDE etc. Some of
the functions of NAPEP through the different ministries and agencies
are:
- Capacity building and vocational training through the capacity
acquisition programme in the major pro-occupations of the nation’s
labor force e.g. plumbing, glazing and painting, mechanical, electrical
and electronics technicians apprenticeship.
- Data generation and statistics on employment among, by maintaining a
record of unemployment among youth and others at the “labor office in
each state and local government council”.
- Job and employment opportunity creation. This is to expose as many
youth as possible to the opportunities for or the –job training and
skills acquisition and concurrently maximize employment opportunities.
- Promotion of awareness in the activities and opportunities in the
expiration of solid minerals resources for employment and promotion
investment.
- Co-ordination and control of activities in teaching and application of science and technology in the locality.
- Enterprises development and promotion like establishment of local resource based cottage industries.
- Rural infrastructural development, like power supply, water supply,
transportation, housing, communications and farm development etc.
Social welfare services like, quality special education, quality
health care delivery services, rehabilitation programmes for destitute
and the disabled, credit delivery for all group.
Despite the excess of poverty alleviation programmes which past
governments had initiated and implemented, by 1999 when the Obasanjo
administration came to power a World Bank’s report indicated that
Nigeria’s Human Development Index (HDI) was only 0.416 and that about 70
per cent of the population was vegetating below the bread line.
These alarming indicators prompted the government to review the
existing poverty alleviation schemes with a view to harmonising them and
improving on them. Three presidential panels were set up in this
regard.
They were: the Presidential Panel on the Rationalisation and
Harmonisation of Poverty Alleviation and Agencies headed by Alhaji Ahmed
Joda; Presidential Technical Committee on the Review of all Poverty
Alleviation Programmes headed by Professor Ango Abdullahi; and
Committees on Youth Policy, Concept of the Youth Empowerment Scheme and
the Blueprint for Poverty Eradication Programme headed by Professor A.B.
Aborishade.
The findings and recommendations of these presidential panels
coalesced in the formation of the National Poverty Alleviation Programme
(NAPEP) in January 2001. This new scheme has been structured to
integrate four sectoral schemes.
The first is the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), which is concerned
with providing unemployed youth opportunities in skills acquisition,
employment and wealth generation. To achieve this, the scheme has been
further subdivided into Capacity Acquisition Programme, Mandatory
Attachment Programme and Credit Delivery Programme.
The second is the Rural Infrastructure Development Scheme (RIDS). The
objective of this scheme is to ensure the provision and development of
infrastructure needs in the areas of transport, energy water and
communication especially in rural areas. The scheme has been broken into
four parts: the Rural Transport Programme, the Rural Energy Programme,
the Rural Water Programme and the Rural Communication Programme.
The third is the Social Welfare Services Scheme (SOWESS) which aims
at ensuring the provision of basic social services including quality
primary and special education, strengthening the economic power of
farmers, providing primary health care, and so on. This third scheme
consists of four broad sub-categories which are, the Qualitative
Education Programme, Primary Health Care Programme, Farmers Empowerment
Programme and Social Services Programme.
The last is the Natural Resources Development and Conservation Scheme
(NRDCS). The vision of this scheme is to bring about a participatory
and sustainable development of agricultural, mineral and water resources
through the following sub-divisions: Agricultural Resources Programme,
Water Resources Programme, Solid Minerals Resources Programme and
Environment Protection Programme.
The target of the National Poverty Eradication Programme is to
completely wipe out poverty from Nigeria by the year 2010. The
formulators of the programme have identified three stages to the
attainment of this ambitious target.
The first stage is the restoration of hope in the mass of poor people
in Nigeria. This involves providing basic necessities to hitherto
neglected people particularly in the rural areas.
The second stage is the restoration of economic independence and confidence. The final stage is wealth creation.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Traditionally speaking, the primary business of government and its
institutions is the promotion of social wellbeing through policy
programmes that are designed specifically for such purpose. However,
before embarking on programme implementation, there is often the need to
appraise the institutional capabilities of the implementing
organization to ascertain its competence in implementing such programme.
If they lack the institutional capacity, then government can decide
whether to create new institution, upgrade the existing ones or retain
their staff in order to equip them with the technical competence needed
to implement the policy programme accurately. In Nigeria the tendency to
proliferate policy programmes is very high, resulting in too many
programmes without clearly defined areas of responsibilities and
authority, rather than strengthening the performance capabilities of
the existing programmes and re-orientating them for innovative task, new
policy programmes are created and more often than not on top of the
existing ones. For instance, NAPEP created on top of NDE. In actual
functioning, these programmes run into conflict with one another,
largely because of the duplication, overlapping functions and lack of
coordination.
The incremental theory by Charles Lindblorn holds that “an
administrative action of past policies usually involve a continuation of
past policies which are tried with least possible (incremental)
modification to suit the changing circumstances”. But policy
continuation or modification has been one of the greatest challenges
facing successive administration in Nigeria. For instance, the National
Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), a policy
programme of government in 1986 was designed to open up rural areas,
through a boost in agricultural production, provision of basic
infrastructural facilities — potable water, electricity, health-care
services, roads, etc with the involvement of the rural people in the
implementation of its goals. Thus, DFRRI was to utilize/encourage
creative potentials of the rural people, develop their skills for
effective participation in the implementation process. Policy
discontinuity stay-maid the programme, as it was replaced by the
Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) whose objectives and activities
were similar. Also the Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP)
introduced in 1985 with the aim of boosting the productive capacity of
the rural people by empowering them to support in establishment of
cottage industries and other related businesses to raise their income
and standard of living, could not go beyond the administration that
established it.
In a similar vein, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) whose
programmes of Youth Empowerment and Vocational Skills Development was
aimed at training of youth for skills acquisition into various trades,
after which they are empowered for self-reliance as well as make them
economically productive in the society was instead of strengthening and
re-orientating it for effective performance, replaced with the National
Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) whose programmes of Youth
Empowerment Schemes (YES) has similar objectives and activities as well
as the targeted masses. The NAPEP, like NDE, has as its core objective
skill acquisition and empowerment of youth for self reliance.
The question now is, why has there been no continuity in policy
programmes especially those that relate to socio-economic wellbeing of
the people? Put differently; why the change from NDE to NAPEP when both
emphasized on skills acquisition and youth empowerment for
self-reliance? Do the NAPEP’s skills acquisition/development and youth
empowerment programmes more focused? If the answers to the above are
affirmative, then, why the heap of problems militating against the
contributory role of the scheme to the socio-economic development of the
people of Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The main objective is to appraise the role of government in the
alleviation of poverty in Nigeria (1999-2007. The specific objectives
are:
- To identify the impact of NAPEP in the eradicating poverty in Nigeria strategies for poverty reduction
- To identify the various government programmes on poverty alleviations.
- To ascertain whether the programme, NAPEP’s skill acquisition and youth empowerment programmes has made positive impact people.
- To make a comprehensive analysis of the general performance of
NAPEP’s skills acquisition and youth empowerment programmes as it best
serves the rural people.
1.4 Statement of Hypothesis
The following hypothesis was formulated to guide this study.
Ho: NAPEP as one of the government programmes to eradicate poverty has not made any impact in reducing poverty in Nigeria.
Hi: NAPEP as one of the government programmes to eradicate poverty has significant impact on poverty reduction in Nigeria.
1.5 Significance of the Study
Achieving significant results reducing poverty often hinges on what
is done, how it is done, when it is done and whom it is targeted at. It
is obvious from several studies that poverty reduction policies in
Nigeria have failed to achieve their stated objectives. Several reasons
may be adduced for this failure. It therefore requires concerted efforts
by all stakeholders to contribute to the success of this all-important
but elusive goal. Such efforts can only be meaningful if it stem from an
empirical study in order to realize not only her own local targets and
objectives, but also to help her in achieving the global lofty objective
of eradicating poverty by the year 2015. Pointedly therefore, this
study is going to be significant for a number of reasons.
- The study is expected to be a concerted effort to identify,
articulate and highlight the existence, causes, and effects of poverty
in Nigeria.
- It is an effort at streamlining poverty reduction strategies towards
making them more potent, and hence more beneficial to the target
population.
- The study is also expected to benefit a number of groups, especially
stakeholders of poverty reduction efforts such as public and private
sector players, planners, managers, coordinators and monitors of poverty
reduction agencies and the poor who are the ultimate beneficiaries of
the efforts and indeed the general public.
- The research is expected to become part of a data bank for operators as well as policy makers in poverty reduction activities.
- It will also arouse the interest of students and researchers to conduct more researches in the field of poverty reduction.
1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study
This study will be limited to an appraisal of the role of government
in the alleviation of poverty. The researcher intends to centre the
study on NAPEP.
Certainly, time, financial and other unforeseen constraint has
precluded a detailed coverage of the study and could not permit the
investigation of the whole programmes of NAPEP. The study is therefore
limited to specific areas of NAPEP programmes with unique activities and
objectives.
Under this NAPEP, the specific areas to be studied are: Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) which has
- Capacity Acquisition Programme (CAP) and
- Mandatory Attachment Programme (MAP) 7
The study also intends to cover the periods between 1999-2007. The
periods and programmes are chosen bearing in mind the ushering in of
democratic dispensation and the peak of poverty situation in Nigeria,
and the objectives of this programme in making the people self-reliant
via bringing the dividend of democracy to the grass-root level.
Added to the above limitation is the non-disclosure of relevant
information especially those tagged “secret” in NAPEP office as well as
lack of authentic and accurate data.
Despite all these limitations, the researcher has tried to make this work a success.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Poverty: The term poverty is defined in the
perspective of this study as a state where an individual is unable to
cater for his basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, unable to meet
social and economic obligations, lack of gainful employment, skills,
assets and self-esteem and has limited access to social and economic
infrastructures such as education, healthcare services, potable water
and sanitation and also has limited chances of advancing his welfare to
the limit of his capabilities.
Unemployment: For the purpose of this study,
unemployment is defined as a condition and/or situation in which able
bodied persons who are physically and mentally fit and are willing to
work, are unable to find work because of lack of employment
opportunities. It is a condition in which those who are able or capable
and eager to work find it difficult to obtain suitable jobs.
Development: The researcher views the concept of
development as the fulfillment of the necessary conditions for the
achievement or realization of universally acceptable aims and potentials
of human personality, through the eradication of poverty, inequality
and unemployment within the economic system of a nation. So development
is therefore the realization of the full potentials of the society,
which is the sustained improvement of the wellbeing of the people.
Self Reliance: In operation terms, self reliance is
to be understood as the will to build up and use a capacity for
autonomous decision making and implementation on all aspects of the
development process including human development. It is an essential
component of alternative strategies, pattern or mode of development
which are directed at the satisfaction of the maximum needs of the
entire population as the primary development objective. It is
development through one’s own efforts.
Economic Development: The researcher look at
economic development as a necessary element in development, a more
equitable distribution of wealth and a cumulative rise in the material
standard of living of an increasing proportion of the total population.
In conclusion, all these definitions imply that it involves rising
living standard.