Department of Banking and Finance, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria
Ezeoha, A.E., Department of Banking and Finance, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria
This paper sets out to examine why it had remained nearly impossible for a country like Nigeria to address the rising incidence of poverty among her citizenry. It also attempts to establish the impact of an apparently total lack of social alignment in government economic reforms and policies. It focuses on trends in the reform programme pursued over the last five years (1999 - 2004) by the present civilian government of Nigeria, and the attendant poverty alleviation strategies adopted. It notes that one of the high points of the manifesto of the Obansajo government in the last five years (May 1999 - 2004) was its commitment to poverty alleviation in the country; and that since its inception, the government had rolled out numerous poverty reduction programmes, and yet at the same time, had developed several economic reform programmes that seemed to have greatly deflected the goals of these same measures. The paper posits that all the efforts of the government, and the resources invested in the poverty alleviation programe over the years seem to have been wasted, as only limited positive results have been recorded. The paper further notes that regrettably, government initiatives designed to mitigate the deleterious effects of the economic reforms have, instead helped to worsen the state of poverty in the country. It recommends that a more realistic strategy to alleviate poverty in Nigeria would be for the government to take full responsibility for ensuring that poor people receive greater attention in their struggle to access affordable and better quality basic services.