Poverty alleviation programs in Nigeria: Issues and challenges

The fight against poverty has been a central plank of development planning in Nigeria since independence. Observers have unanimously agreed that successive government’s interventions have failed to achieve the objectives for which they were established. It is against this background that the paper examines the various government policies targeted towards poverty alleviation in Nigeria with a view to, come up with policy recommendations for effective and efficient implementation of such policies. Exploration into the literature revealed that governments in power often seek to introduce their own policy and in the process, any other policy inherited from successors are either abandoned absolutely or rendered impotent. There is therefore lack of succession planning and some governments even watch their baby program dying prematurely to give birth to another with different orientation and strategic focus and as such the paper recommends that all programs centered towards poverty alleviation should henceforth be harmonized under the same umbrella, and each unit being accountable and responsible for their actions.