POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN NIGERIA: BETWEEN TIMES OF BIBLICAL ISRAELITES AND CONTEMPORARY NIGERIANS, LEVITICUS 25:35-38

Abstract

The measurement of poverty in developing nations are carried out to reduce the severity of poverty in such nations. There are Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations that take poverty reduction as a project, and one such is a faith-based oraganisation such as World Mission Agency (WMA). This study focuses on the poverty alleviation of WMA and evaluates the impact accessibility and significance of WMA poverty alleviation programs. A survey was conducted at Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using the principal component analysis and the t-test. The results obtained were discussed, one vivid findings of this study was that the effectiveness of the poverty alleviation programmes of the World Mission Agency in Ota was based on the systematic establishment of programmes that address the needs of people at the grassroots level and recommendations were made which include that the federal government of Nigeria should take a cue from the World Mission Agency Poverty Alleviation Programs. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer but the sector has been tainted by accusations of corruption. According to the report, absolute poverty is measured by of people’s inability to afford basic essentials of shelter, food and clothing. Even the government of Nigeria from federal to local level have made several attempts to reduce the crippling effects of poverty by undertaking various poverty alleviation programmes such as Agriculture Development Project (ADP), Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution Programme (GRP), Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Graduate Internship Scheme (SURE-P) N-Power etc, but the problem has become resilient. Okunoye (2011) observes that the higher percentage of security challenges being experienced in Nigeria is caused by poverty. It has become a breeding forum for all social vices in Nigeria such as kidnapping, corruption, arm robbery, ritual killing and all sorts of detestable and anti-social practices. He further states that in Nigeria, poverty manifests itself in various ways such as food insecurity, poor clothing, poor housing, poor transportation system, poor educational system, poor health facilities and services, erratic power supply, lack of potable water and so on. But of all these manifestations, food insecurity is the mother of them all because, it is the maximum degree or condition of poverty.