CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

This chapter examines the conceptual framework, review of empirical studies and

theories on poverty.

2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Poverty

Poverty may be difficult to define. This is because many people see it in different

perspectives. This connotes the fact that what may be termed poor may not be seen as poor by

the other people. Conventional definitions in attempt to come to terms with these issues

consistently conceive poverty as an economic issue. This is measured either as a minimum

flow of real income per capita, or as a bundle of basic needs which may be qualified. Social

Scientists on the other hand recognize the need for broadening the definition of poverty. .

The Copenhagen Declaration of 1995 seems to shed more light on what really

constitutes poverty. According to the declaration, poverty has various manifestations,

including lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihood;

hunger and malnutrition, ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic

services, increase morbidity and mortality from illness, homelessness and inadequate housing;

unsafe environments, social discriminations and exclusion. It is also characterized by a lack of

participation in decision and in civil, social and cultural life (Edoh 2003).

According to Adejo (2006) the deprived are usually the poor. These are people of

insufficient income, inadequate food intake, lack basic healthcare, lack shelter and safe

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drinking water, poor environmental cleanliness, lack access to basic education and skills,

ignorant of fundamental human rights, and access to information. These however constituted

the challenge and focus of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Kankwenda (2003)

defines poverty as a multidimensional phenomena influenced by a wide range of factors, these

include poor people lack of access to income earning and productive activities and to essential

social services

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD (2001) on the

other hand describes poverty as an unacceptable human deprivation in terms of economic

opportunity, education, health and nutrition, the lack of empowerment and security. The

International Fund for Agricultural development, IFAD (2001) basically defined poverty

from an economic perspective as compared to OECD and Adejo (2006).They defined poverty

as a situation of households with persons having the lowest incomes per person, usually one

half to two thirds of GDP per person.

According to World Bank (2008) poverty is the pronounced deprivation in wellbeing

and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire basic

goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels

of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical

security, lack of voice and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one‟s life.

The United Nations (UN) on the other hand defines poverty as the inability of getting

choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to

participate effectively in the society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family,

not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one‟s food or a

job to earn one‟s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and

exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence and

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it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or

sanitation.

With all these diverse concepts, the definition of poverty as adopted in this study is

basically the state in which one lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money and

the deprivation of basic human needs such as food, water, shelter, clothing, health care and

education.

2.2.1 POVERTY IN NIGERIA, AND GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS TO

ERADICATE POVERTY.

Nigeria as a developing country is seriously challenged by poverty. Out of every 10

Nigerians 7 live on less than $1 a day and the picture is getting bad by the day (Amobi, 2008).

According to Chukwuemeka, (2008) poverty has various negative effects on today life, life

expectancy is a mere 54 years. Infant mortality is 77 per 1,000 and maternal mortality stands

at 704 per 100,000 live births, which is about the highest in the world (Amobi, 2008). Only

about half the population of Nigeria had access to safe drinking water (40% in rural areas,

60% in urban areas), Unemployment and underemployment rate is put at 15% of the labour

force (Amobi, 2008). Given these facts and figures, it is frightening that Nigeria with such a

dismal outlook as presented above, may not qualify immensely to embrace the imperatives

of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which one of its main thrust and number

one objective is poverty eradication (Amobi, 2008). Efforts made by the successive regimes

and administrations in Nigeria to stamp out poverty failed due to poor implementation and

incompatibility of policy goals. The rate of poverty in Nigeria made different governments to

adopt certain measures. For instance Eze (2007) contends that the government of Olusegun

Obasanjo adopted the policy of poverty eradication and promotion of socio-economic

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development and at the same time pursued a policy of retrenchment of thousands of workers

from the federal bureaucracy including the armed forces.

The centrality of poverty has made successive Nigerian governments to initiate

sustainable development programmes aimed at alleviating or minimizing the deadly scourge

of the poverty phenomenon. According to Odion (2009) programmes such as Operation Feed

the Nation (OFN) which was launched in the 1970s and Green Revolution initiated in 1980

existed in the past to address the problems of poverty. Other efforts made by successive

governments include the establishment of the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural

Infrastructure (DEFFRI), National Directorate of employment (NDE), Better Life

Programme, (BLP), the Peoples‟ Bank of Nigeria (PBN), Family Support programme (FSP),

Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) and National Economic Empowerment

and Development Strategy (NEEDs). DFRRI was established in 1986 to construct feeder

roads, provide rural water supply and rural electrification for the rural areas.

The NDE was also established in 1986 to provide training, finance, and guidance for

unemployed youths. BLP on the other hand came into being in 1987 to provide empowerment

self-help and rural development programmes, skills acquisition and healthcare for the rural

women. The PBN was established in 1989 to encourage savings and credit facilities for the

underprivileged in urban and rural areas while Community Banks were established in 1990 to

operate banking facilities for rural residents and micro enterprises in urban areas. The FSP

came on board in 1994 to provide healthcare delivery, child welfare, youth development, etc.

FEAP and their state variants (SEAP) were initiated to provide credit facilities to support the

establishment of cottage industries in rural areas. The poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP)

was an interim measure put in place in 2000 to address the problems of rising unemployment

in the society and to increase the productiveness of the economy. It was designed to

coordinate and monitor poverty alleviation effort and ensure that Nigerians were provided

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with steady sources of income, high purchasing power, quality education, water, healthcare

and housing; stable and affordable power supply, among others.

In 2004, the Federal Government of Nigeria set up the NEEDs Strategy with a view to

fighting the poverty scourge which it described as the most difficult challenge facing Nigeria

and its people and the greatest obstacle to the pursuit of socio-economic growth. Over the

years attempts were made at alleviating poverty as reflected in the expression of commitment

by successive governments, increase in the number of programmes and increasing

commitment of resources in the process, however, very minimal success has been recorded or

achieved. This, according to Muo (2007) is largely due to lack of coordination and

commitment, lack of continuity, improper appreciation of the roots and magnitude of the

problem, poor funding of the programmes, policy inconsistency, deficient infrastructural

facilities and corruption. On the other hand, the Central Bank of Nigeria (2003) in its own

view based on empirical investigation attributed the failure of poverty alleviation programmes

to deterioration in fiscal discipline, corruption, political instability and inconsistent policies.

To crown it all, NEEDs (2004) pointed out several factors that had hindered the effort of

government at reducing the level of poverty. These included poor coordination; the absence of

a comprehensive policy framework, excessive political interference; ineffective targeting of

the poor leading to leakage of benefits to unintended beneficiaries; the unwidely scope of

programme which caused resources to be thinly spread across too many projects design,

implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The evidence suggests that the reforms and

policies have not recorded the spectacular results expected. Thus, poverty alleviation remains

a mirage in Nigeria.

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2.2.2 CAUSES OF POVERTY IN NIGERIA

In any case, poverty in Nigeria like in all developing economies are not without

causes. Obadan (1977) enumerated the causes of poverty in Nigeria to include inadequate

access to employment opportunities, inadequate physical needs, such as land and capital, and

minimal access by the poor to credit even on a small scale; inadequate access to means of

supporting rural development in poor regions; inadequate access to market when the poor can

sell goods and services; low endowment of human capital, destruction of natural resources

leading to environmental degradation and reduced productivity; inadequate access to

assistance for those living at the margin and those victimized by transitory poverty and lack of

participation, that is, the failure to draw the poor into the design of development programme.

There is no one cause or determinant of poverty. On the contrary, combination of

several complex factors contributes to poverty. They include low or negative economic

growth, inappropriate macroeconomic policies, deficiencies in the labour market resulting in

limited job growth, low productivity and low wages in the informal sector, and a lag in human

resource development. Other factors which have contributed to a decline in living standards

and are structural causes or determinants of poverty include increase in crime and violence,

environmental degradation, retrenchment of workers, a fall in the real value of safety nets, and

changes in family structures (Ajakaiye and Adeyeye, 1999; Ogwumike, 2002 and NPC,2004).

Ajakaiye and Adeyeye (1999) and Ogwumike (2002) explained certain key causes of

poverty in Nigeria. These are examined below:

Macroeconomic shocks and policy failure: This has been a major cause of poverty in

several countries of the world. As many economies in the world faced macroeconomic

disequilibrium, mostly in the balance of payments due to expansive aggregate demand

policies, terms-of-trade shocks, and natural disasters, it become necessary to undertake major

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policy reforms. In the process such economies became vulnerable to poverty. Macro-

economic shocks and policy failure account for poverty largely because they constrain the

poor from using their greatest asset “labour”.

III-Health/Diseases: Good health is basic to human welfare and a fundamental

objective of social and economic development. Poor health shackles human capital, reduces

returns to learning, impedes entrepreneurial activities and holds back growth and economic

development. Diseases cause poverty and vice versa. In most countries of the World major

diseases causing poverty are Malaria, HIV/AIDS and other infections/diseases. In Nigeria for

instance, AIDS prevalence is about 5.4% with an infected adult population of 2.6 million

(This will constrain availability and participation of this segment of the population in the

labour market to earn income and funds gets channelled to this course)

Debt burden: In several developing countries of the world, debt burden is assuming

increasing importance as a cause of poverty. In such countries servicing of the debt has

encroached on the volume of resources needed for socio-economic development. The

productive sector such as agriculture, manufacturing etc are equally constrained leading to

low productivity, low capacity utilization, under employment and low purchasing power

thereby subjecting the masses of the people to abject poverty. In Nigeria, at the end of

December 2000 external debt stood at US$28.5 (about 80% of GDP),though , a debt pardon

deal was brokered between Nigeria and her creditors (Paris Club) during the Obasanjo‟s

regime, by 2011 debt portfolio was projected to represent 12% of GDP. Amount required to

service this debt annually is enough to hamper government expenditure for the provision of

social and physical infrastructure for the poor.

Governance: The persistence and pervasiveness of poverty in several countries has

been linked to the lack of popular participation in governance and decision -marking as well

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as weak institutional base. This has led among other things to poor accountability,

transparency in resource allocation, weak programme implementation and monitoring.

Ultimately, development programmes are rendered ineffective poverty reduction initiatives

are therefore ineffective and resources wasted.

Environmental Degradation: Environmental degradation is a cause of accentuated

poverty. At the same time, poverty itself can be a cause of environmental degradation. This

reverse causality stems from the fact that for poor people in poor countries such as Nigeria, a

number of environmental resources are complementary in production and consumption to

other goods and services while a number of environmental resources supplement income most

especially in time of acute economic stress (Falconer and Arnold, 1989). This can be a source

of cumulative causations, where poverty, high fertility rates and environmental degradation

feed upon one another. Also, scarcity of fuel woods forces women to make what is available

burn slowly. WHO (1984), reckons that under slow burning conditions wood fuels are capable

of producing pollution concentrates higher than fossil fuels and subject the households to

more smoke pollutants. The incessant cutting down of trees for firewood and charcoal have

hindered prospect for increased yield and hasten the prospect of the creeping desert while

profligate use of the country‟s resources by industries and industrial pollution from improper

waste disposal has further exacerbated the plight of the poor.

Crime and Violence: A steady increase in crime and violence has degraded the quality

of life to a varying extent in many counties of the world. Although individuals of all

socioeconomic groups are affected, the urban poor are particularly vulnerable to these social

problems. There are instances of shootings, gang killings. etc Crime and Violence have

serious economic costs. For instance, an increasing proportion of public resources, which are

already limited, is required to strengthen police enforcement, support the growing prison

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population, finance the demands place on the judicial system, and provide health care for

persons injured by violence.

Chimobi (2010) also spelt out certain factors that causes poverty in Nigeria, they are

examined below;

Unemployment: Unemployment is a major factor contributing to poverty in Nigeria.

There is a strong correlation between unemployment and poverty. When people are

unemployed, their source of livelihood depletes over time. The cost of living becomes high

and the standard of living goes down. There are many people in Nigeria who lack the

opportunity of being employed. The formal unemployment rate in Nigeria as estimated by the

World Bank in 2007 was 4.9 percent and Nigeria ranked 61st across the worlds countries

(CIA Factbook). As reported by Teshome (2008), the then newly released African

Development Indicators report of the World Bank showed that “education, once seen as the

surest, undisputed gateway to employment, no longer looks so certain.” This is very true in

the case of Nigeria. The fact that you are an educated Nigerian is no guarantee that you will

be employed. Furthermore, according to the World Bank report, unemployment in Africa is

higher among those who have attained a higher education of some kind, and also those in

wealthy households because they depend solely on the wealth of their families and do not

consider employment a priority. Many graduates in Nigeria wander the streets without

anything reasonable to do for a living. The government is capable but unwilling to provide

jobs for them. Employment in Nigeria is usually not based on merit but depends on how

connected you are with people that have power. This leaves many highly qualified people in

poverty as seemingly no one cares to know what they are capable of achieving. These people

are missing out on the income they would have gotten if they were employed. The number of

quality jobs in the economy is low and many government resources are misallocated.

Unemployment-induced poverty tends to increase the crime rate and violence in the country.

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Most unemployed youths resort to crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom,

internet fraud and other forms of fraudulent activities. The reservation wage they get from

these activities is typically barely enough to take care of their basic necessities.

Corruption: This has become a common act in Nigeria and it has destabilized the

political system drastically. Government funds are being misappropriated on a daily basis by

the leaders, who only put the interest of their family and friends at heart while ignoring the

masses. The corruption has eaten so deeply into the government and economy that everyone

seems to be blinded by it. Corruption has almost become an accepted way of life in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the government‟s income is generated mostly from natural resource revenues. This

income, instead of being used for developmental purposes, is then circulated among the

political office holders and their families, leaving the rest of the people to wallow in poverty.

Political leaders practically ignore the affairs and wellbeing of their people who elected them

into office. They mismanage and embezzle funds. There are several issues involved with bad

governance in Nigeria, use of wrong policies, adaptation to wrong policies and

implementation of those wrong policies. In any case, it is clear that Nigeria‟s corruption has

increased poverty

Non-Diversification of the Economy – Oil Over-Dependency: While Nigeria‟s poverty

has been identified to be caused by many factors, Nigeria‟s non- diversification of the

economy can be seen as a major factor. Before 1970, the Nigerian economy was driven by the

agricultural sector. The oil sector which only constituted 1 percent of the country‟s export

revenue in 1958 rose to 97 percent by 1984 and has since then not gone below 90 percent. In

2008, the oil and gas sector constituted about 97.5 percent of their export revenues, 81 percent

of government revenues and about 17 percent of GDP.7 In Nigeria, those in power have

practically ignored other sources of income, and today, Nigeria depends heavily on exporting

oil. This dependency on natural resources is often referred to as “Dutch disease”, whereby

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natural resources make a country less competitive. Excluding the few working in the oil

sector, the majority of the people have been impoverished as their products have become

irrelevant. The agricultural sector, which was their major means of income before the

discovery of oil, is considered almost useless. Beyond the Dutch disease, Nigeria‟s

abundance of a natural resource has led to what is known as a resource course, which is

reflected in the “Niger Delta Crisis (reflecting the region of the country where most of the oil

is coming from). The people in this region are fighting for resource control as they claim the

government is not fulfilling their promise of giving them the large part of the oil revenues.

The wealth from natural resources in Nigeria is supposed to be working with the derivation

policy, but this policy is not functional in any way, as the oil-producing states are still

impoverished and this policy is supposed to work in a way such that these states with these

natural resources should be able to get a large part of the countries revenue as they contribute

a lot to the national wealth. According to Collier (2007), resource wealth sometimes

contributes to a conflict trap and the surplus from natural resource exports reduces growth. He

goes on to discuss the case of Nigeria in the 1970s, when other exports of the country like

agriculture became non- profitable due to increase oil revenues. He explains how the Dutch

disease can damage the growth process by closing out on the exports in other promising

sectors of the economy. The first half of the 1980s gave rise to a huge oil boom in Nigeria and

also led to excessive government borrowing and investment on wasteful projects that made

the corruption in the country more apparent. As the world price of oil crashed in 1986,

Nigeria‟s oil revenues reduced drastically and Nigeria‟s external debt increased drastically.

The introduction of the structural.

Laziness: Laziness is a common disease which is virtually suffered by many Nigerians

today, especially those from wealthy households. Everyone wants to be comfortable but they

are not ready to work towards it. This often leads to greed where people will do whatever they

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can to keep the family wealth for themselves. In most families, everyone depends on the bread

winner, who works so much to keep the family going and when he dies the family is likely to

become poor because of mismanagement of funds. In most Nigerian families, the death of the

bread winner means the death of the whole family fortunes; because everyone was depending

on him/her to provide everything.

Poor Education System: Education can play a major role in reducing poverty.

According to the World Bank, education is central to development. It promotes economic

growth, national productivity and innovation, and values of democracy and social cohesion.

In Nigeria, the population with no education account for most of the poor. The education

system in Nigeria can be regarded as a failure compared to other countries in the world. The

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 8 states that “everyone has the right

to an education.” This right to education has been denied to many Nigerians, of which many

of them can be considered invisible to the society now. This deprivation of education applies

more to females than males, because they are considered the inferior sex. Hence educating

them is seen as unnecessary as they are expected to marry as early as possible.

In Rodney‟s book; how Europe underdeveloped Africa (1972), he was of the view

that underdevelopment which basically cannot be separated from poverty results from unequal

interaction between two societies. The more this unequal relationship lasts, the more the

backwardness of the less privileged ones. Rodney (1972) catalogued the disadvantages that go

with the unequal relationship with the advanced countries, which includes poverty and

stagnation, greed etc, aims he traced the present predicament of Africa to the time it came into

contact with the advanced countries.

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2.2.3 EFFECTS OF POVERTY IN NIGERIA

According to Hannah Cleveland (2014) the effects of poverty can be felt at every level

of society, from the individual living in poverty to the political leader attempting to provide

solutions. Whether it is health conditions or increased crime rates, poverty reaches just about

every aspect of life. According to Hannah Cleveland (2014) the effects of poverty include:

Malnutrition: The most common effect of poverty is malnutrition. This is especially

seen in children of poor families. People living in poverty rarely haveaccess to highly

nutritious foods. Even if they have access to these foods, it is unlikely that they are able to

purchase them. The healthiest foods are usually the most expensive; therefore, a family on a

very small budget is much more likely to purchase food that is less nutritious, simply because

that is all they can afford. Sometimes people in poverty are malnourished simply because they

do not eat enough of anything. For most people in Nigeria, quality food is a luxury. Poor

nutrition causes 45 percent of deaths in children under the age of 5. Malnutrition can also lead

to many other health issues as well.

Health: One of the most severe effects of poverty is the health effects that are almost

always present. This includes things from diseases to life expectancy to medicine. Diseases

are very common in people living in poverty because they lack the resources to maintain a

healthy living environment. They are almost always lacking in nutritious foods , which

decreases their bodies‟ ability to fight off diseases. Sanitation conditions are usually very low,

increasing the chance of contracting a disease. Sometimes these diseases can be minor, but

other times they can be life-threatening. In general, people living in poverty cannot afford

appropriate medicines to treat these illnesses. Life expectancy and child mortality are greatly

affected by poverty. Statistics show that life expectancy in poor nations such as Nigeria is up

to 30 years below that of wealthy nations, child mortality is shockingly high in Nigeria.

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 Education: Education is largely affected by poverty. Many people living in poverty are

unable to attend school from a very early age. Families may not be able to afford the

necessary clothing or school supplies. Others may not have a way for their children to get to

school. Whatever the reason, there is a clear correlation between families living in poverty

and their lack of education. Without the ability to attend school, many people go through life

illiterate. The literacy rates in countries with high poverty levels indicate that these two are

linked. Low literacy rates can affect society in various ways including the labour force and

politics. A bad cycle is created; poverty prevents people from gaining a good education, and

not obtaining an education prevents people from escaping poverty.

Economy: Among the effects of poverty includes its impact on the economy of the

country. Mainly, the number of people living in poverty influences employment rates heavily.

Without an education, people are unlikely to find a paying job. Unemployment hinders a

country from developing into a strong economic system. A high unemployment rate in

Nigeria has impeded the countries progress in all ramifications. The labour force suffers when

a large part of the citizens cannot contribute to economic development.

Society: Poverty also has social effects. Many people living in poverty are homeless,

which puts them on the streets. There also seems to be a connection between poverty and

crime. When people are unemployed and homeless, social unrest may take over and lead to

increases in crime. When people have nothing and no money to buy necessities, they may be

forced to turn to theft in order to survive. Homelessness and high crime rates impact of a

country‟s people and can create many problems within a society. It is clear that poverty has

far-reaching effects on all people. By improving global poverty, economies could prosper,

health could improve and countries can develop into strong global presences. All countries

will benefit when decreasing global poverty becomes a priority in the world.

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 Children antisocial behaviour: One of the effects of poverty on children‟s development

is to lead them to build an antisocial behavior that acts as a psychological protection against

their hostile environment. Discrimination and social exclusion often push them to more

aggressiveness and less self-control and nuance in reaction to stressful events. Having often

been taken advantage of in their early childhood, they rarely come to a constructive way to

deal with conflicts. As they grow up, these behaviours are more and more entrenched in their

personalities and often considered unrecoverable. This highlights the importance of taking

action as early as possible to improve children‟s living conditions. Policymakers should

understand that not just income but a child‟s social environment at large (parenting, school

violence, housing, but also sanitation, uncontaminated food and water) play a big role in

creating new effects of poverty.

According to the Research for social and economic development (2011), the effects of

poverty are most often interrelated so that one problem hardly ever occurs alone. Poverty is a

major cause of social tensions and threatens to divide a nation because of the issue of

inequalities, in particular income inequality. This happens when wealth in a country is poorly

distributed among its citizens. In other words, when a tiny minority has all the money. The

feature of a rich or developed country for example is the presence of a middle class, but

recently we've seen even Western countries gradually losing their middle class, hence the

increasing number of riots and clashes. In a society, poverty is a very dangerous factor that

can destabilize and entire country.

According to Francis (2001), the impact of poverty on Nigeria is devastating. Due to the

inability of the people to harness the resources that will improve their living conditions, it has

helped to dismantle their hopes of life. Therefore the economic activities of these people

continuously face diminishing returns. This impact is seriously felt in the agricultural sector

as well as other sectors of the economy. Since farmers lack the appropriate technology,

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updated skills, modern technology, capacity building, innovative techniques, tools, lack

capital to invest in this sector (to improve the soils and multiply the yields), because of this

poor state, the sector has seriously been affected. Because of the poverty situation in Nigeria,

the country has been plunged into a feat of successive political problems that has resulted to

coup d‟etats, dictatorship, military rule and many leaders clinging so long on to power. This is

because they believe that nectar is found only on the crown or around the crown”. It is

because of this reason today that we find a lot of massive emigration of Nigerians to Europe,

America and other parts of the world to seek for greener pastures. They use all unorthodox

means to make sure that they leave their homeland for good to a land where they are subjected

to all forms of slavery. Yet the exodus continues despite all attempts to curb it. This only

helps to reduce the economic manpower of the continent, which ought to be nurtured. Due to

this fact, poverty-related problems like malnutrition, diseases, HIV/AIDS, juvenile

delinquency, disillusionment, unemployment, social insecurity, fraud, acute corruption,

embezzlement, trauma have been the order of the day. It has resulted to the availability of

very few and poor medical facilities, personnel and infrastructure. Acute poverty in Nigeria

has resulted in high rate of illiteracy. This is because, there are no educational infrastructure,

few and in experienced personnel. This has affected mostly the elementary and post

secondary levels.

2.3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Just as there is no universally acceptable definition of poverty, so it is with theories of

poverty. Attempts have been made to discuss theories of poverty from various dimensions.

Theory of poverty falls basically into four identified perspectives according to Barbara Stark

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(2010). They are: the conservative, the liberal reformists, the radical structure/marxists

and the social Exclusion.

The conservative theories are further divided into: individualistic and culture of poverty.

The conservative theories

Individualistic Theory: This theory is viewed from the angle of the individual‟s inability

to be productive so as to get out of poverty. As argued by O‟Donnell (1997), writers of 19

century and early 20 century in both Britain and United States attributed poverty to individual

weakness. This theory is founded on self help and survival in which those who work hard to

succeed while the weak fail to succeed giving rise to the non-poor and the poor respectively.

The individual attribute theory is of the view that the poor are the architects of their

misfortune. Programmes established in Nigeria in line with this theory are: Poverty alleviation

programme (PAP) and the on-going national poverty reduction programme (NAPEP). This is

because these two programmes have been characterized by payment of stipends (incase of

PAP) and granting of loans to individuals under NAPEP.

The Culture of Poverty: The culture of poverty also known as vicious of poverty was

developed in late 1950s, by Oscar Lewis from a field study among the urban poor in Mexico

and Puerto Rico (Islam, Haralambos and Heald, 1980). It is known as culture of poverty

theory because it concerns people whose environment and belief exhibit different culture and

or a sub-culture from the rest of the society.

The Liberal reformist

Situational Theory of Poverty: The situational theory was popularized by the University

of Michigan‟s institute for social research. It was discovered in their outcome that there is

little evidences that individual attitude and behaviour pattern affect individual economic

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progress. This theory which was also in response to the culture of poverty theory views

poverty as a reaction to situational constraints rather than an issue of culture. That poverty

results from imposed constraints such as low income, unemployment and illness (O‟Donnell

1997; Haralambos and Heald 1980). Haralambos and Heald further argued that the poor share

the same culture with that of the society with the difference being their inability to translate

opportunities into realities due to imposed constraints.

Structural/Marxian Theory of Poverty: The radical structural/ Marxist perspective argued

that capitalism produces poverty due to its exploitative syndrome. It is hinged on the fact that

capitalism brings about fundamental social problems including severe by inequality which

leads to poverty. Since wealth is concentrated in the hands of a minority who are bent on

pursuing profits through exploitation of labour, redistribution of resources is more within the

classes than between classes. Those stricken by poverty are often subjugated by bourgeoisie

so as to glean profits and capital via exploitation.

Social Exclusion Theory: The social exclusion theory is predicated on poverty resulting

from people who tend to be excluded from effective participation in a society‟s activities due

to segregation. The social exclusion theory which was officially adopted in a world summit

which in a Copenhagen in 1995 holds that certain people within the society become more

vulnerable to poverty because of discrimination. This approach which has been described as

„peoples centered‟ as against „goods centered‟ is characterized by three paradigms namely:

solidarity, specialization and monopoly (Islam and Anyanwu 1997).

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