11 May 2011 : Omolaraeni Borisade [University of Ibadan Dept. of Communication and Language Arts]
Following his success at the Presidential election, it is pertinent to begin to examine President Goodluck Jonathan's ability to reduce the overwhelming poverty in the country. Without doubt, this is a country that is so much endowed with all imaginable resources, but lacks the ability to make her citizens happy. Consequently, millions of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty in the midst of plenty.
It is on record that successive governments since independence in 1960 have been making efforts to alleviate poverty and stimulate development. But it appears that past poverty alleviation programmes have not yielded the much desired results as millions of Nigerians could still not boast of three square meals a day.
It is sad that the United Nations human poverty index has ranked Nigeria as the 25th poorest nation in the world despite getting $300 billion in oil and gas revenues and development aid. Certainly, the causes of this unenviable profile cannot be divorced from corruption, bad governance, debt overhang among others.
The question is this? How we are going to continue under President Goodluck Jonathan government beginning from May 29? Can we expect a radical departure from the status quo? Does President Jonathan have a magic wand to reduce poverty in Nigeria?
In the past, we have had operation Feed the Nation (OFN), the Green Revolution, establishment of Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), Directorate of Employment (NDE) among others-all tailored towards reducing national poverty, but did we succeed? Not really!
Now, is President Jonathan going to rehash all these past efforts or his he going to come up with fresh thinking on how poverty should be reduced? It must be noted that poverty precipitates crimes in the society. It is poverty that drives young ladies into prostitution and armed robbery. It is poverty that forces people into rituals and corruption.
I shall therefore be glad if President Jonathan makes pragmatic efforts towards reducing poverty. Development communication course in my discipline has taught me that poverty can be reduced if the programmes are rural-driven rather than top-down approach.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201105120441.html
Following his success at the Presidential election, it is pertinent to begin to examine President Goodluck Jonathan's ability to reduce the overwhelming poverty in the country. Without doubt, this is a country that is so much endowed with all imaginable resources, but lacks the ability to make her citizens happy. Consequently, millions of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty in the midst of plenty.
It is on record that successive governments since independence in 1960 have been making efforts to alleviate poverty and stimulate development. But it appears that past poverty alleviation programmes have not yielded the much desired results as millions of Nigerians could still not boast of three square meals a day.
It is sad that the United Nations human poverty index has ranked Nigeria as the 25th poorest nation in the world despite getting $300 billion in oil and gas revenues and development aid. Certainly, the causes of this unenviable profile cannot be divorced from corruption, bad governance, debt overhang among others.
The question is this? How we are going to continue under President Goodluck Jonathan government beginning from May 29? Can we expect a radical departure from the status quo? Does President Jonathan have a magic wand to reduce poverty in Nigeria?
In the past, we have had operation Feed the Nation (OFN), the Green Revolution, establishment of Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), Directorate of Employment (NDE) among others-all tailored towards reducing national poverty, but did we succeed? Not really!
Now, is President Jonathan going to rehash all these past efforts or his he going to come up with fresh thinking on how poverty should be reduced? It must be noted that poverty precipitates crimes in the society. It is poverty that drives young ladies into prostitution and armed robbery. It is poverty that forces people into rituals and corruption.
I shall therefore be glad if President Jonathan makes pragmatic efforts towards reducing poverty. Development communication course in my discipline has taught me that poverty can be reduced if the programmes are rural-driven rather than top-down approach.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201105120441.html
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