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RURAL POVERTY AND THE CHALLENGES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA; A STUDY OF ABOH MBAISE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF IMO STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.  BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY:

The pride of any government is the attainment of higher value level of development in such a way that its citizens would derive natural attachment to governance. However, for a nation to be in a phase of development there must be some pre-requisites, which include socio-political and economic stability. The gap between the developed and the developing countries is not static or narrow but is continually widening. A large majority of the world’s population in developing world lives in a state of poverty. The problem of urban population, rural stagnation, unemployment and growing inequalities continue to face less developed countries, which Nigeria belongs. Hope of accelerated developmentsis difficult to realize. This gloomy situation is of great concern to stake holders and the concerned citizenry. Nigeria has not been able to engender meaningful development inspite of her huge resources endowment. This has greatly affected her quest to improved quality of life of her citizens.

          On the main issues in development,debates are on how to tackle rural poverty. The constraints to developing the rural area as well as the problems of this critical sector have come to loam very large for over four decades in Nigeria. All attempts to put the rural areas on course of development have failed.Conditions have continued to worsen and poverty has become a major issue in the rural areas especiallyAbohMbaise local government area in spite of their potentials. Therefore, a major concern to government’s multilateral institutions and policy makers in different countries is to identify appropriate strategy for poverty alleviation especially in the rural areas.

          Prior to 1996, about 46.3% of Nigeria’s population was, according to the data of the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS), living below the national poverty level (Olatunji, 2006). The poverty index increased to over 65.6% by 1996 and according to the estimate of UNDP, over 70% of Nigerians were by 2002 living below the poverty level (UNDP, 2008).

            The picture of growing poverty in Nigeria can easily be demonstrated by reference to the

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