The Anatomy of Poverty.
By: Owei Edward Elizabeth

The misery of living in poverty amidst the riches and vast resources of the country is evident not because we lack the resources to make it better but because there is neither the humanity nor willingness to do the needful.

Poverty is defined as the "state of being in which we are unable to meet our needs".
Baratz and Grigsby (1972) defined poverty as a condition involving some deprivations and adverse occurrences that are closely (but not necessarily exclusively) associated with inadequate economic resources.

The myopic, selfish and elitist nature of our leaders and their inability to wear the shoes of a common man in order to get solutions to the problems facing the ordinary Nigerian from that perspective is also a big call for worry. The issue of poverty in Nigeria is so complex and myriad that one may consider it as equal to the whole problem of Nigeria. The rate at which poverty rides in the country is alarming. Every one seems to be blinded by the "paycheck to paycheck" standard of living such that at the middle of the month, they go broke and wait for the end to come.

I heard someone say nothing is working in this country. How would it work? The things we are supposed to have are not available. If they were scarce, it could have been better. We say our country is developing, there could be growth but I tell you there is no development. Scholarships are no longer free, no good road network for the transportation of goods and services, the system makes it difficult for business transactions to take place effectively and efficiently, the education system is poor, there is corruption in high and low places as corruption is not only on the seats of power. It is "Like" MTN, everywhere you go.

Like my Yoruba folks would say, "Remove Hunger from poverty and Poverty is reduced". With the use of technology, output from agricultural produce would increase, building a good road network between the rural and urban areas will ensure access to public markets and also ease the movement of goods to distant places.

Our leaders must begin to map out ways to make our states multi-city states such that people can live in places outside Lagos, Abuja and state capitals and still enjoy city life. if there is development in rural areas, rural-urban migration would be reduced thereby causing a reduction in over population in the cities and the overburdening of infrastructure in urban areas.


Reference
Baratz, N. S. and W.G. Grigsby (1972), "Thoughts on Poverty and its implementation: In Journal of Social Policy, Vol.6

Nice read.

Great piece. Mapping out ways to make our states multi-city states should be a priority to our leaders. If you take out Lagos and Delta, all other states in Nigeria are more or less such that if you are not in the state capital, you are in the village. Our leaders have failed us with regards to reducing the influx of people to state capitals thereby overburdening the weak infrastructure that they even manage to put in place.


Cc; lalascticlala toyne2much, operationfaceurhussle

Nice write up I must say..
Rural development is the way to go, empower them and subsidize machines for mechanized farming, provide power and I tell ya Nigeria would be great