Illusions to Poverty Reduction in Nigeria

Poverty is a phenomenon that has attracted a lot of attention and discourse globally; thus, leading mainly to changes overtime in its conceptualization, criteria for measurement and determining the threshold respectively. These also account largely for the existence of wide range of reduction measures both in the past and in recent times employed by countries and international donor agencies like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Department for International Development, African Development Bank, United Nations Agencies, etc respectively to reduce the scourge. However, instead of stemming the tide, ironically, poverty rate is on the increase, especially in developing countries irrespective of array of policies and programmes believed to have been designed for its reduction. The paper is a critique of poverty reduction strategies vis-à-vis incidence in Nigeria. Data for the study were gathered through secondary means and analysis done via critical descriptive method anchored on the elite theory as framework of analysis. While it acceded that reduction policies and programmes might have recorded some degree of successes; however, the study argued strongly that the high incidence of poverty in the country in spite of the number of policies and programmes formulated, implemented and amount of fund expended respectively portray that they are illusions. Thus, concluded that an appropriate understanding of the meaning and import of poverty reduction is necessary to guide practical and urgent measures that are sincere and genuine, piloted by honest political leadership with strong will to address the challenge decisively; otherwise efforts at reducing poverty in the country will continue to be a mirage.