Making poverty history in Riverside communities
By Cosmas Attayi-Elaigu
Halving extreme poverty by 2015 was a major resolution of world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, stimulating initiatives by national governments to improve the life of their citizens.
The world governments' solemn pledge at the beginning of the new millennium was ``to free our men, women, children from abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty.”
The ambitious declaration included the achievement of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and women empowerment, reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health.
Others were combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, as well as environmental sustainability and the development of a global partnership for development.
To realise the dreams the leaders set goals and targets which were time bound.
In line with the meeting of some of the goals, the 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace, was awarded to the Bangladesh economics professor, Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded.
He had abandoned classroom theories for micro-credit banking that transformed many rural communities into economic prosperity in his home country.
Yunus was teaching at the country's national university, until he initiated a scheme that offered credits as low as $1 (N130), which were applied to trade in goats, cows, sugar cane farming and hawking around the campus in which he worked.
He set up the Grameen Bank in 1976 with just $27 from his own pocket. Thirty years on, the bank has 6.6 million borrowers, of which 97 per cent are women, according to the Grameen web site.
This feat and its celebration came to the fore in Nigeria when an NGO committed to civic education and empowerment, Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP), muted the idea of a national conference on poverty eradication in the riverside communities of Nigeria.
The conference was held at the Beach Confluence Hotel, Lokoja, Kogi state between December 12 and 15, 2006.
According to CAPP President, Chom Bagu, the conference concluded a three-year project with riverine communities across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
``The project has so far sensitised more than 150,000 people from such communities while preparing them to participate and make input into poverty eradication policies and programmes of government," he said.
More than 200 participants, including government officials, civil society activists, the poor in the affected communities and international partners attended the conference.
Bagu condemned past regimes in the country for exploiting resources of the communities without regard to the welfare of the inhabitants of the areas.
``They harness oil and give the people environmental pollution and violence. They harness electricity and keep the people in darkness," he said.
The CAPP boss explained that the confab was initiated to create further platforms for the target communities to make input into policy formulation and implementation, especially with regard to the plight of the rural communities.
Participants agreed that poverty eradication in riverine and other rural communities of Nigeria was linked to the success of democracy, and that corruption was prevalent in the management of poverty reduction programmes by government officials at all levels.
``Most of the poverty alleviation programmes in the riverine communities are initiated and implemented without the active participation of the benefiting communities," they said.
They pointed out that `environmental pollution, flooding and erosion have become major hazards among riverine communities without necessary attention by the authorities".
They also condemned political thuggery and observed that the ongoing INEC voters' registration was fraught with lapses which could prevent many citizens from exercising their franchise.
The forum suggested that civil society organizations should be encouraged to embark on aggressive civic education in riverine communities on how best to make their representatives more accountable.
It called of government to be proactive toward all programmes that affect the riverine communities, ``especially the environmental impact assessment, so that people do not suffer unduly as a result of negligence and conspiracy.
``Both government and NGOs should initiate micro credit schemes that can bring the riverine communities in line with modern economy, as a means of reducing poverty among the people."
In a keynote address delivered on the occasion, the deputy director of Action Aid International, Ms. Ojobo Atuluku, remarked: ``In order to combat poverty and injustice we must understand its nature.
``In a world of so much natural and material plenty and unparalleled human ingenuity, why do a fifth of humanity live in desperate want? In a country of so much wealth, why do 70 per cent of us live in poverty?
``Experience of working with poor and disadvantaged communities the world over including Nigeria has led us to conclude that it is unequal and unjust power relations that lie at the root of poverty,'' she said.
Atuluku added: ``Poverty and injustice are not inevitable - they result from structures and processes of human made social, economic and political systems.''
Atuluku, who described poverty in rural Nigeria as a paradox, argued that human rights based approach should be taken into consideration in all proposals on the alleviation of poverty in the country.
She urged civil society groups and government officials to engage the planned second phase of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) to avoid the mistakes of the past.
Debate on strategies for poverty eradication in Nigeria also resurrected at the recent civil society - legislature session on the Public Procurement Bill held in Lagos.
It was organized by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) with funding support from PACT - Nigeria Project of USAID.
Participants challenged the civil society groups to engage the draft of the second edition of SEEDS being packaged by the federal government, to avoid the errors in the current strategy and to make the policy more inclusive and practical.
They pointed out that task before the NGOs in this circumstance, should be how to mobilize the greater spectrum of the society toward productive activities.
It is believed that they can do this by creating the space for low income earners to benefit from programmes such as that of Yunus and making them to discover their potential and how to put them to profitable use. (NAN)