A STUDY ON THE POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN THE LIGHT OF DEUTERONOMY 15:17-18

1.1 Introduction

According to Oseni (2007), poverty is a state of involuntarily deprivation to which a person, household, community or nation can be subjected to poverty is a condition in which one cannot generate sufficient income required to secure a minimum standard of living in a sustainable pattern. Poverty in Nigeria is caused by lack of employment, high rate of illiteracy among the citizenry, poor infrastructure, inadequate access to micro credit facilities, mismanagement of public funds, bad governance, instability of the governments and its policies (Oseni, 2007).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Poverty has become a pervasive National and Global issue resulting from a state of short or long term deprivation and insecurity in basic human needs (Chambers, 1996; Mullen, 1996; Obadan, 2002). Poverty has also become a feature of the living conditions and life situation of the vast majority of Nigerians. The incidence of poverty in Nigeria was put at 28.8% in 1980, 46.3% in 1985, 42.7% in 1992 and 65.6% in 1996. In 2008, estimates from the National Bureau of Statistics put incidence of poverty at 54.4% (Fakoya, Banmeke, Ashimolowo, Fapojuwo 2010). Several evidences have suggested that majority of the world’s poor live and work in the rural area and that they would continue to do so in 2025 (IFAD, 2001).

Poverty gives rise to many other serious social problems, some of which, not only impose enormous economic and social costs upon the non- poor and society in general, but also threaten the survival and stability of the society. In these regards, the Federal Government of Nigeria had designed several programmes aimed at alleviating poverty and improving the living conditions of its people which include Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution, Structural Adjustment Programme, Better Life Programme and Family Support Programme, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). These programmes by the various governments of Nigeria were designed by policy makers and targeted at poverty alleviation in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the quality of life of majority of Nigerians had remained unenviable and embarrassingly low, despite the huge budgetary allocations by these governments to these poverty alleviation programmes (Orji, 2005). There is a need to identify other means of addressing the serious damage caused by poverty to the Nigerian society, attention should therefore be shifted to the use of self-help using Cooperative organizations formed and administered by the people.

Nigeria as a land filled with milk and honey suffers from the menace of poverty. Different questions have been asked to how poverty which is affecting the economy can be reduced to minimum. Several Government bodies have been setup to find a lasting solution to the problem striking the masses. However,it will be expedient to know what poverty is all about and to know the meaning of cooperative according to different scholars and join the two together to have a clearer understanding of the purpose of the study.

According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, Poverty is a state of being poor. It is the inability of a household to generate adequate income for the maintenance of the household.

Cooperatives have been dedicated to conducting business in a way now being recommended as the most effective route to transformational development: putting people in charge of their own destinies and helping them bring services to their communities; increasing decision making, trust and accountability through democratic participation; providing a profitable connection to the private sector; building and protecting assets at the community level; limiting the role of government; and working together to resolve problems.

A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, as well as cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise (COPAC, 1999). A Co-operative is a group-based and members-owned business that can be formed for economic and social development in any sector (Ohio Co-operative Development Centres (OCDC) 2007). According to DFID (2005), co- operatives have four main characteristics: first, they are formed by groups of people, who have a specified need or problem. Secondly, the organization is formed freely by members after contributing to its assets. Thirdly, the organization formed, is governed democratically in order to achieve desired objectives on equitable norms, and fourthly, it is an independent enterprise promoted, owned and controlled by people to meet their needs. Cooperatives provide self-employment through millions of worker-owners of production and service cooperatives; financial cooperatives mobilize capital for productive investment and provide people with secure institutions for the deposit of savings; consumer cooperatives provide households with affordable goods and services reducing the proportion of income used for basic living costs, and similarly user-owned cooperatives such as housing, utility, health and social care cooperatives provide affordable access to basic services.

Cooperative as socio-economic institutions through their activities could be a potent tool for poverty alleviation particularly in fighting poverty and unemployment. This could be in the area of agriculture, provision of infrastructural facilities and education.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Poverty Reduction in Warri-South Local Government Area in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Poverty is seriously severe in rural areas where social services and infrastructures are limited or not in existence. The greater number of those who live in rural areas depends solely on agriculture for food and income, and a high proportion of rural people suffer from malnutrition and other diseases related to poor nutrition.

Therefore, the situation is aggravated by the fact that many rural household are stark illiterates, and also lack inadequate capital to start a business of their own. On the other hand, cooperatives in Nigeria are still known to be bedeviled with problems including:

• Lack of capital, lack of access to credit facilities, Poor management, and misappropriation of funds, etc.

While efforts are being made by stakeholders of cooperative in Nigeria to remove and/or reduce these problems, there is an apparent consensus that the need for adequate and sufficient knowledge of the role of cooperatives in poverty alleviation still exists. For example there is a need to identify and analyze in sufficient details those cooperative activities and functions that bear directly on the economic empowerment of members, as well as identifying factors that could promote and enhance cooperative efforts in poverty reduction. Unless these issues are known and appreciated, the emphasis on cooperative as a poverty alleviating platform may continue to be unrealistic.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Poverty Alleviation in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18 using Warri-South Local Government Area as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To assess the incidence, depth and severity of poverty among the respondents,
2. To examine the influence of cooperative membership on poverty status of rural women farmers in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18, and
3. To investigate the constraint affecting cooperative society in alleviating poverty among rural women farmers in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What are the incidence, depth and severity of poverty among the respondents?
• What is the influence of cooperative membership on poverty status of rural women farmers in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18?
• What is the constraint affecting cooperative society in alleviating poverty among rural women farmers in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

• H0: There is no significant relationship between Warri-South Local Government Area and poverty reduction among rural women farmers in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18
• H1: There is significant relationship between Warri-South Local Government Area and poverty reduction among rural women farmers in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18

1.7 Significance of Study

Nigerian government and the international agencies have introduced measures in alleviating poverty, such programmes ranges from Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in early 1980s; Directorate for Food Road and Rural Infrastructure (DEFRRI).

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the assessment of Poverty Reduction in Warri-South Local Government Area, Nigeria in the Light of Deuteronomy 15:17-18.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).