POVERTY IN NIGERIA: A HISTORICAL STUDY ON CAUSATION AND REMEDIATION
POVERTY IN NIGERIA: A HISTORICAL STUDY ON CAUSATION AND REMEDIATION

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines poverty in Nigeria in the context of causation and remediation. It interrogated the changes and continuities in Nigeria’s poverty history. This study on poverty was informed by the fact that in 2018 Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world. This development is mind-boggling because Nigeria is naturally endowed to be above poverty. She is the acclaimed Giant of Africa because of her abundant human and mineral resources critical for overturning poverty. Despite this, Nigeria’s poverty profile had grown from bad to worse. Hence, the aim of this paper is to put the development of poverty in Nigeria into proper historical perspective. Its objectives were to examine the changing causes of poverty; and to demonstrate how the belief of Merrie Africa created a safe pod for poverty to hibernate and metamorphose into its extreme form. The paper used the historical research methodology and the qualitative method of data analysis to interpret sources. It found that poverty in Nigerian history ranges from situational, circumstantial, contextual and structural, income and food poverty. But they are remediable. The paper concludes that the remediation of poverty in Nigeria lies in understanding and reversing its causation.

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