Poverty, Inequality and Human Development in Nigeria: Appraising the Non-Attainment of the MDGs

Abstract

The challenge of the 21st century has been how to confront and reduce widespread inequalities and poverty. This remains the core of development problems that underline the principal objective of development policy as embodied in the Millennium Declaration. Despite significant improvements over the past 50 years in advancing human well-being, extreme poverty and inequities remain widespread in the developing world. The world today is characterized by vertiginous accumulation of wealth by a few to the exclusion of larger majority who suffer untold hardship and impoverishment. These conditions have been exacerbated by the adoption of free market paradigm anchored on private accumulation. This has engendered an overlap of all types of injustice and social polarization that now define the basis for social life in most countries of the world, including Nigeria where 70 percent of the population lives below US$ one dollar a day. As an exploratory study, secondary sources of data were engaged to interrogate the policy of market fundamentalism and the manifestations of inequities it has engendered. The paper argued that the lack of access to essential goods and services for a dignified human existence, the unevenness in the distribution of incomes and fruits of economic growth, as well as constraints in the access to power, self-esteem and freedom coupled with the prevalence of ethnic, religious, gender differences and orientations have generated violence, unrests, war, terrorism and deepen social conflicts- which reinforce the conditions of growing social inequality. The paper further proposed a restructuring of the present one-size-fits all model of social relations of economic globalization to one which require closer economic cooperation, where people and countries collectively act together to solve their common problems of trade, capital and environment. Besides, there is need for international financial institutions such as the World Bank/IMF to respect national sovereignty, allow each country to make appropriate decisions that will shape and strengthen the process of nation building and better quality of life. In all, decision-making about economic globalization must be democratic and recognize that economics is not zero-sum, but one about transforming the lives of people.

Keywords: Exclusion, Human Development, Inequality, Poverty, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)