ABSTRACT
This study was designed to look at the impact of poverty alleviation programme on the youths in Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Poverty level in Kaduna State increased from 67% in 2001 to 95% in 2013. Kaduna South is one of the Local Government in Kaduna that need to provide employment opportunities than its counter part Local Governments as a result of Localization of industries in the Area. Yet unemployment among the teeming youths is on the increase. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of poverty alleviation programmes on the youth of Kaduna South Local Government Area, to examine the impact of poverty alleviation programmes in terms of employment generation, and to ascertain the strategies adopted by Kaduna State Government to improve the living standard of the youths in Kaduna South Local Government Area. The hypotheses that are formulated to form the bases of the study are: one, the low performance of the poverty alleviation programme is as a result of low participation of youths in Kaduna South” and the second hypothesis increase in incidence poverty in Kaduna South is attributed to low funding of poverty alleviation programmes. The theoretical framework used to analyzed this work are: the radical Marxist theory and social exclusion theory. The radical Marxist theory argues that capitalism produces poverty due to its exploitive nature, the theory is hinged on the fact that capitalism brings about fundamental social problems including severe inequality, which leads to poverty, while the social exclusion theory enables us to direct our search light on poverty as a result of excluding certain groups of people from participation in a society’s activities due to segregation. The research findings shows that there is inadequate funding of the poverty alleviation programme, that majority of the youths are unemployed and majority of the respondent are not beneficiaries of the activities of poverty alleviation programmes activities therefore it is very important that Government give adequate fund to the poverty alleviation programmes and those who are entrust with the activities should ensure adequate participation of the people.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
According to UNDP Human Development index (HDI) (2011), which focuses on three measurable dimensions of human development, living long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living States that “The Nigerian Human development is poor” the 2002 report on Nigeria shows that “ the human development index was just 0.466 which places the per capita income on 1,496 dollars as of 2011, the country is ranked 166 position out of 177 countries which makes it the 10th poorest country in the world,” to worsen the situation, the population of 137 million in (2002) is estimated to be below the poverty line $1 (one dollar) per-day. By 2003 the situation has worsened with the country dropping to 152nd position”, the 2006 report shows that “Nigerians are poorer than they were 2 years and live shorter live. This report ranked Nigeria as 159th position in 2006 and also places her among 30 countries with lowest quality of life world wide by international standard an individual level of wellbeing is measured by his daily income. It is an international standard that an individual earning below $5 per day is living below poverty line.
Poverty level in Kaduna State increased from 67% in 2011 to 95% in 2013, according to Dr. Abdullahi (2013), as a federal permanent secretary, who was a guest speaker at the annual general congress/National Executive council (NEC) Meeting of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), in Barnawa, Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State, kicked against what he described as the use of old approach by the State and federal Government to alleviate poverty.
Abduallahi observes that in 2001 out of 100 people, 67 were poor, but that the percentage of the poor people has now increased to 95% in Kaduna South. He further said that Kaduna Local Government is ridiculous, if viewing the availability of human and localization of the industries that were within the Local Government Area.
Musa, (2009), argues that Kaduna South is one of the Local Governments in Kaduna that need to provide employment opportunities than its counter part Local Government, he observes that in the Local Government itself are polytechnic and corporative college. It is the main road from the Nigerian capital Abuja to the North. It has number of factories, providing textiles, Peugeot Automatic Plant, steel and Aluminum, yet it is shocking that out of 402,390 populations that 70% of the figure are said to be within the ages of 17-65 which is the working age and that 171,418.14 of the working age within the Local Government lack any form of employment.
Various policies and programmes have been implemented in attempt to solve poverty problem in Nigeria. They include Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), (1976), Green Revolution(1979), National Directorate of Employment (NDE) (1986), Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI). Better life for rural women, (1987), family support/ FEAP. National Poverty Eradication Programme(NAPEP) among others which are State- sponsored programmes they are numbers of policy measures with numerous institutions and schemes were initiated by Nigerian Government with the view to curb the menace of poverty and to see that there is socio-economic development.
Therefore, it is in the light of above, that the research work is designed to evaluate the impact of poverty alleviation programmes on the youths in Kaduna South Local Government with a view to ascertaining whether or not it achieve the objectives for which the programmes were set up and at end of the work to proffer solutions and useful recommendations on how to improve the situation.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Unemployment has grown in Nigeria in the three decades and still having an upward trend among the youths. Its reduction needs to be addressed in order to reduce or even eliminate among the youths in Nigeria.
The world bank (2011) States that the unemployment rate in Nigeria is growing at geometrical level that need an urgent attention, putting the unemployment rate in Nigeria to 35%.
Kaduna State is located at the center of Northern Nigeria and shares boundaries with Niger State to the West, Zamfara, Katsina and Kano States to the North, Bauchi and Plateau States to the East and FCT and Nasarawa State to the South. Kaduna State occupies a land mass of 46.053 square kilometers and had population of 6,113,503 people , census (2006), distributed among 23 Local Governments.
It is expected that state should have an advantage of employment opportunities within its metropolis. The fact is that in 1981, Nigeria’s first in land petroleum refinery in the North was built in Kaduna, the State has various textile mills in the Kaduna South Local Government, Peugeot automobile assembly plant, Coca-Cola Company, 7 Up Company, Nigeria Brewery Company among others existing industries all located in Kaduna South Local Government Musa (2009).
Apparently, one of the greatest challenges facing the Nigerian Government today is how to empower the citizens and reduce income disparity between the rich and the poor. In the past the Government at all levels has tried to address this problem by allocating resources to a range of programmes that had employment generation as one of their objectives. The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and national poverty alleviation programme are initiated to empower the people of Nigeria by creating employment, with empowerment programmes and the Localization of industries in Kaduna South Local Government should be an added advantage of employment creation opportunities for the teaming youths, but it was contrary.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)has recently released the 2012 unemployment data which reveals a wide dichotomy between Local Governments in Kaduna State.
According to the data released, the bottom ten in the jobless list of Local Governments in Kaduna are; Kaduna South Local Government 42.6%, Kaduna North Local Government 41.4%, Ikara Local Government 39.4%, Makarfi Local Government 38.7%, Zaria Local Gove
