CENTRE FOR ADVANCED ARTS, SCIENCE, SOCIAL AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCE RESEARCH VOL.2, NO 2

1. THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS, HUNGER AND
POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN NIGERIA
Dr (Mrs) Rose N. Nwankwo
Department Of Public Administration,
Federal Polytechnic, Oko
Anambra State- Nigeria
Email: rosenwankwo@gmail.com
Abstract
Due to precarious socio-economic ambience and the global publicity it has generated, sub-
Saharan Africa has become synonymous with poverty, and Nigeria is not an exception. Although
several ideas have been generated domestically to address the scourge but the persistence of
poverty in large scale explains the inherent limitations in government interventionist measures.
Consequent upon this, the inauguration of the MDGs, which represents an attempt at combating
poverty and hunger through global partnership for development, appears to constitute the key to
Nigeria’s escape from poverty trap. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are targeted at
eradicating extreme hunger and poverty in the 189 member countries of the United Nations
(UN). It is one of the global efforts aimed at enhancing the living standard of man especially in
the world’s poorest countries. They are eight in number, hoped to be achieved by the year 2015.
Among the eight goals is that of eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. This is the focus of
this paper. The paper examined how eradication of extreme poverty and hunger will lead to the
achievement of the entire millennium development goals. The paper suggests, amongst others
that education can be used as a tool in achieving the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
in Nigeria if adequate planning and policy geared towards the educational sector is made. We
equally recommend, amongst others that the country must make suitable reforms backed with the
political will to catalyze them in the face of prevailing circumstances. We also need to adopt
participatory reform instruments. In this way, making reforms flexible and elastic enough to
accommodate the vital contributions of the different sectors of the State, will promote positive
reform outcomes.
Keywords: Millennium Development Goals, Education, Hunger and Poverty Alleviation
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2. INTRODUCTION
The MDGs originated from the Millennium Declaration produced by the United Nations.
The Declaration asserts that every individual has the right to dignity, freedom, equality, a basic
standard of living that includes freedom from hunger and violence, and encourages tolerance and
solidarity (Deneulin, Séverine, and Shahani, 2009). The MDGs were made to operationalize
these ideas by setting targets and indicators for poverty reduction in order to achieve the rights
set forth in the Declaration on a set fifteen-year timeline. The Millennium Summit Declaration
was, however, only part of the origins of the MDGs. It came about from not just the UN but also
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. The setting came about through a series of UN-led conferences in
the 1990s focusing on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights, women and others. The
OECD criticized major donors for reducing their levels of Official Development Assistance
(ODA). With the onset of the UN's 50th anniversary, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
saw the need to address the range of development issues. This led to his report titled, we the
Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century which led to the Millennium
Declaration. By this time, the OECD had already formed its International Development Goals
(IDGs) and it was combined with the UN's efforts in the World Bank's 2001 meeting to form the
MDGs ( Hulme, and Scott, 2010).
The poverty situation in Nigeria is galloping. Despite several attempts by successive
governments to ameliorate the scourge, Eze (2009, 447) explains that the level of poverty is
geometrically increasing (Okpe and Abu 2009,205). Poverty is deep and pervasive, with about
70 percent of the population living in absolute poverty (Okonjo-Iweala, Soludo and Muhtar
2003,1; the Punch Newspaper 2009,14). The ballooning poverty situation notwithstanding,
Nigeria is blessed with abundant resources. Chukwuemeka (2009,405) observes that the country
is blessed with natural and human resources, but in the first four decades of its independence, the
potentials remained largely untapped and even mismanaged (Omotola 2008,497). Putting the
problem in proper perspective, Nwaobi (2003, 5) asserts that Nigeria presents a paradox. The
country is rich but the people are poor. Given this condition, Nigeria should rank among the
richest countries that should not suffer poverty entrapment.
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3. However, the monumental increase in the level of poverty has made the socio-economic
landscape frail and fragile. Today, Nigeria is ranked among the poorest countries in the world.
The fight against poverty has been a central plank of development planning since independence
in 1960 and about fifteen ministries, fourteen specialized agencies, and nineteen donor agencies
and non-governmental organizations have been involved in the decades of this crusade but about
70 percent of Nigerians still live in poverty (Soludo 2003,27). Observers have unanimously
agreed that successive government’s interventions have failed to achieve the objectives for which
they were established (Ovwasa 2000, 73; Adesopo 2008, 219-222; Omotola 2008,505-512). The
failure to effectively combat the problem has largely been blamed on infrastructural decay,
endemic corruption, and poor governance and accountability (Okonjo-Iweala, Soludo and
Muhtar 2003, 1).
However, the Millennium Development Goals is one of the global efforts towards
enhancing the living standard of man. The aim is to improve the social and economic conditions
in the world’s poorest countries through reduction of extreme poverty and hunger, child
mortality rates, achieving universal primary education, improvement of maternal health, ensuring
environmental sustainability, combating H1V-A1DS, malaria and other diseases, promotion of
gender equality and empowerment of women, besides developing a global partnership for
development. This paper focuses on the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger as a means
towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria. Poverty and hunger are
serious threats to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Unless poverty and hunger are
eradicated, efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals will be seriously
impeded and hampered.
Conceptualizing Poverty
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of poverty. This is obviously because the
concept is multi-dimensional in nature and can be approached from different perspectives. As a
result, Eze (2009, 446) submits that there is a plethora of literature on the concept of poverty.
Quite a number of works have been done on the concept of poverty but rather than reaching a
consensus on its meaning, scholarly works have proliferated alternative poverty concepts and
indicators. This condition explains the complexity involved in the conceptual analysis and
dissection of poverty. Maxwell (1992, 2) asks a number of agitating questions bordering on the
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4. current terminology of poverty. Is poverty simply about the level of income obtained by
households or individuals? Is it about lack of access to social services? Or is it more correctly
understood as the inability to participate in society economically, socially, culturally and
politically? According to Maxwell, the posers above reflect the complexity of measurement
which mirrors the complexity of definition, and the complexity increases where participatory
methods are used and people define their own indicators of poverty.
However, beyond the complexities, the posers represent the different dimensions of
poverty from income and consumption poverty to vulnerability, deprivation, powerlessness and
isolation. The complexities above notwithstanding, different ideas have been expressed on the
concept of poverty. The concept has been defined in absolute sense. The World Bank (2000)
defines absolute poverty as ‘a condition of life degraded by diseases, deprivation and squalor.
Again, in relative sense, poverty implies relative deprivation (Bradshaw 2006, 4). However,
Rocha (1998, 1) notes that the persistence of chronic deprivation of basic needs nowadays makes
absolute poverty the obvious priority in terms of definition, measurement and political action
from the international point of view. Gore (2002, 6) explains the concept of ‘all-pervasive’
poverty. According to him, poverty is all-pervasive where the majority of the population lives at
or below income levels sufficient to meet their basic needs, and the available resources even
where equally distributed, are barely sufficient to meet the basic needs of the population. Gore
reiterates further that pervasive poverty leads to environmental degradation, as people have to eat
into the environmental capital stock to survive. When this happens, the productivity of key assets
on which livelihood depends is greatly undermined.
Poverty is a state in which one is incapable of providing the basic needs of life for oneself.
Harry in Anyanwu (2004) defined poverty as a situation where the resources of individual
families are inadequate to provide socially acceptable standard of living. For Aluko (1975)
poverty refers to lack of command over basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. Poverty is
a situation in an economy where there is inadequate level of income and consumption, thus
resulting to insufficient basic necessities of life such as health-care, unemployment, malnutrition,
sickness, illiteracy, low status of women etc. Arinze in Nnaa (2006) described poverty as lack of
income needed to acquire the minimum necessities of life. It is a state in which one is incapable
of providing the basic needs of life for oneself. A state of poverty sets in when an individual has
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5. reached a level of providing for himself the basic necessities of life, but he is unable to do so and
lives on to depend on some other people. Poverty gives rise to physical deprivation, hunger,
powerlessness, voicelessness and dependency. Okorie (2003) opined that poverty, human
suffering and misery become pervasive when all the means of human survival cannot be
achieved to a considerable extent. Poverty has adverse consequences on man such as insecurity,
shame, sense of hopelessness, humiliation and marginalization (Agwagah, 2002). It leads to
starvation, frustration and even death as the individual affected lacks the means to satisfy the
basic needs such as food, shelter, education, health, nutrition etc.
Development Assistance Committee (DAC) (2001) posits that poverty
encompasses different dimensions of deprivation that relate to human capabilities including
consumption and food security, health, education, rights, voice, security, dignity and decent
work. Nwaobi (2003, 3) also identifies the dimensions highlighted by poor people to include lack
of income and assets to attain basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing and acceptable levels of
health and education), sense of voicelessness and powerlessness in the institutions of the state
and society; and vulnerability to adverse shocks. Poverty is a ‘condition of human existence
where resources for meeting basic human needs are extremely limited or inaccessible (Mumaw,
1996).
Basically, the different approaches to poverty comprises deprivation, which focuses on the
non-fulfillment of basic material or biological needs including such elements as lack of
autonomy, powerlessness, and lack of dignity; vulnerability and its relationship to poverty;
inequality which has emerged as a central concern; and the violation of basic human rights
(Shaffer 2001, 4). The juxtaposition of the conceptual analysis above and the practical reality in
Nigeria reveal that there is high-level mass and pervasive poverty in the country. This explains
why the attainment of the MDGs and poverty reduction in Nigeria require massive efforts from
governments at all levels and other stakeholders including the international donors.
Poverty refers to a condition where a person or group of persons are unable to satisfy
their most basic and elementary requirements for human survival in terms of food, clothing,
shelter, health, transport, education and recreation. People hit by poverty live in intolerable
circumstances in which starvation remains a constant threat, sickness becomes a familiar
companion while oppression becomes a fact of life. It is pronounced deprivation in well being.
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6. To be poor is to be hungry, to lack shelter and clothing; to be sick and not cared f be illiterate and
not schooled (World Bank, 2001).
The Millennium Development Goals.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that
all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to
achieve by the year 2015. Members of the United Nations came together in September, 2000, in
search of ways and means towards amelioration of condition of living of man through fostering
of accelerated development. The United Nations summit consequently went ahead to set what it
refers to as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Millennium Development Goals
which are eight in number were evolved from the agreement and resolutions of the world
conferences organized by the United Nations a decade earlier. These eight goals include:
i. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
ii. Achieving universal primary education
iii. Promoting gender equality and empowerment of women.
iv. Reduction of child mortality
v. Improving maternal health
vi. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
vii. Ensuring environmental sustainability
viii. Developing global partnership for development.
Each of the goals has specific stated targets and dates for achieving those targets. To accelerate
progress, the G8 Finance Ministers agreed in June 2005 to provide enough funds to the World
Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (ADB) to
cancel an additional $40–55 billion debt owed by members of the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) to allow impoverished countries to re-channel the resources saved from the
forgiven debt to social programs for improving health and education and for alleviating poverty.
Each goal has indicators for measuring achievement. The MDGS aim at spurring development
by improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries. The eight goals
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7. are what 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations agreed to
achieve by the year 2015 (http: /en./wikipedia.org/wiki/ Millennium Development Goals).
Having explained what poverty is, the likely question at this point is ‘show can poverty be
eradicated among Nigerians as a means of achieving the Millennium Development Goals? The
simple answer is that Nigerians should be empowered with skills needed for useful life in the
society, skills that are saleable and utilitarian in nature.
Skill is an art which can be developed with training and practice. A skilful man is a man having
enough ability, experience and knowledge to be able to do something well (Hornby, 1974).An
individual gives his skill in exchange for money. The salaries and stipends received by workers
are indeed the exchange for the skill demonstrated at work place. The money so earned enables
individuals to establish and stabilize their stay and existence in the society. The skills acquired
by citizens put together are the wealth of the nation. An individual without skill has nothing to
sell to make money. Lack of skill impoverishes the citizens and a nation. The saleable skill
acquired enables an individual to obtain other needs such as food, clothing and shelter as well as
maintain his ego (Uzoagulu, 2009)
An individual without saleable and employable skill wallows in despondency because he has
nothing for sale; nothing to contribute to the society. The basis for skill acquisition and
development is that man must exist and survive and conquer his environment and circumstances.
He achieves this by being skilful enough to subdue various life challenges which continuously
present themselves to him. In fact, the nature and meaning of existence find fulfillment through
skill acquisition and development. Nigerians should be assisted to acquire and develop saleable
skills that will enable them stabilize their existence in the society and instill in them the
confidence that they have something to offer as well as accepting themselves as worth living.
Every living being needs food for survival. Therefore, for a man to survive, he must
search for food to eat. Searching food to eat by man is in response to a drive which is an arousal
state that occurs because of a physiological need. A need is a deprivation that energizes the drive
to eliminate or reduce deprivation. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs our main needs satisfied in
this sequence: physiological (food), safety, and belongingness, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic and
actualization.
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8. Food is an important aspect of life in any culture. Whether we have very little or a large
amount of food available to us, hunger influences our behavior. It can be asserted that the
behavior of every Nigerian is influenced by hunger which is caused by poverty. Poverty
manifests itself in different ways among members of the society. It cripples man and makes him
look stupid.
Eradicating Poverty in Nigeria
One of the surest ways of eradicating poverty, hunger and other human deprivations is
through human resource capacity building. As Okonkwo (2009) puts it, there is no way
eradication of poverty and hunger can be realized outside the competencies and comparative
edges of human capital resources. Commenting on the possibility of Nigeria realizing the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015, Nwokeoma (2009) opined that the idea of
reeling out statistics of funds released by the Nigerian government when there is nothing on
ground to show for such expenditure is not a sure way of achieving the MDGS. Rather, the funds
should be directed on human development, especially the youths. Almost a decade ago, Nigeria
articulated a programme called the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy
(NEEDS) at national level with the intent of achieving the MDGS by 2015. Later the programme
was extended to State levels as State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy
(SEEDS) while .at the local government level, it came under the name, Local Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (LEEDS). Since this programme was launched,
though very laudable, many Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of the achievement of the goals.
Rather, the problems were seen increasing with gaps between the “haves and have-nots”
widening. Abani, lgbuzor & Moru (2005), noted that despite the great natural wealth, Nigeria is
still poor and social development is limited. Nigeria as a nation is poor because many Nigerians
are poor inspite of abundance of natural resources which the creator has bequeathed to her.
Poverty and hunger can be eradicated or reduced among Nigerians through equipping
them with saleable skills. Uzoagulu (2009) believes eradication of poverty and hunger among
Nigerians can be achieved through imparting to them employable and saleable skills needed in
the economy. He went further and opined that a large chunk of the population does not desire to
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