EDITORIAL: World Poverty Alleviation Day, What Has Been Achieved?

WORLD Poverty Eradication Day was observed on Tuesday, 17th October, 2023. As usual, not much has been achieved on the anti-poverty funds.

Billionaires still hold a large chunk of wealth worldwide. Here in Nigeria, there is great confusion about the interpretation of poverty and the strategies needed to pool large amounts of people out of poverty. It is getting even worse. For example, the latest statistics indicate that inflation in Nigeria is at an 18-year high; this could very well be an underestimate. Food inflation alone has gone into the stratosphere and is getting even worse for the least protected sectors of society which is profoundly disturbing in a country lacking even rudimentary social safety net.

The response through the use of “Palliative” has become so confusing that it’s moving from tragedy into farce. We have had videos of the distribution of palliative which resemble comic skits; this is rather unfortunate.

Our paper this week focuses on mixed responses to the distribution of palliatives in Osun State. In the present confusion, we must go back to the definition and accept that palliative however defined cannot be mistaken for a cure. In many cases, palliative care has come to be seen as a panic response to a crisis; we must therefore go back to working out a real anti-poverty position.

A structured anti-poverty war must start from the base which is the local government; without rebuilding the local governments as the real focus of the development, process of significance can’t be achieved. It is from the base that we see real and determined collective effort on the root courses of poverty.

Out of this, we come to a revitalization of the cooperative movement that was strategic throughout the ages as a battering round in the war against poverty. Government at all levels must also be more focused; we welcome the Federal Government roads resuscitation programme.

We believe that greater emphasis should be placed on rural roads as a way of bringing down food price inflation. The multiplier effect of an investment in a kilometer of rural roads according to the World Bank is times ten.

This is obvious for it should be at the heart of rural redevelopment, well-being and overall integrated development. It will not only increase output but also induce the formation of cottage industries, thereby leading to much-needed value-additioning. It’s to be hoped government at all levels will prioritise this policy in preparing their forthcoming budgets.

We must also now re-examine the successful social intervention programmes. Government too must reexamine the social intervention program of the past. For example, during his tenure as Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola used social intervention programmes as an economic liver for achieving sustainable development. The effects are unambiguously beneficial.

The same thing can be said of the programs undertaken in a previous era by Governors Lateef Jakande (Lagos State), Sam Mbakwe (Imo State), and others efforts are a clear testimony that an anti-poverty program can be used as a trajectory for sustainable development and real economic growth as opposed to “Growth without development”.

The war against poverty must be not just intensified but anchored on a strategic imperative for development. It should not be seen as a charity but as a means of building a productive base of society by ensuring that no one is left behind. Attempts to share prosperity will lead to more enduring economic development. This is why we must move away from and end the illusion that palliative care is worthwhile or enduring.