The conception of poverty in Obubra Rural, Nigeria

Abstract

Poverty has been variously defined over the years and the various perspectives from which it has been seen have stimulated different reactions. But one thing that is obvious is that all the definitions are subjective in that they fail to incorporate the impression of the people so-classified as the poor. This paper attempts to define poverty from the
perspective of rural people often classified as the poor. Empirical data were collected in Obubra town market. The respondents to a questionnaire interview numbered 150 and were drawn through stratification and random sampling procedures. According to the respondents, poverty meant poor living conditions, lack of own house or landed property resulting from unemployment or poor income or curses. Poverty manifests in the form of bankruptcy or indebtedness, irresponsible living habit, poor health, gross failure and psychological defeat in the community. Therefore having this
awareness, about 69 per cent of them agreed that they were poor while 21.3 per cent claimed not to be poor and 10 per cent were indifferent. They identified eight different causes of poverty, including lack of capital for investment and spiritual spell cast on someone. In order to alleviate poverty they recommended demographic, and economic controls
as well as spiritual exercises. The study concluded that if the priorities of the respondents are given preferential consideration, attempts at eradicating poverty in the study area would succeed.