Since independence in 1960, successive governments in Nigeria have come up
with various poverty alleviation strategies aimed at empowering Nigerians in rural and
urban areas. Several of these programmes not withstanding, poverty in Nigeria remains
an issue of great concern as over 75 per cent of the citizens live below poverty
line.This paper seeks to examine the constructions of empowerment in Nigeria’s poverty
alleviation programmes with particular focus on the Obasanjo regime’s Poverty
Alleviation Programme (PAP).
Methodologically, the paper utilizes predominantly secondary sources of data given
its nature. And our findings reveal that poverty subsists in Nigeria despite all counter
measures because the programmes and empowerment strategies so far adopted have
remained remedial, and have fundamentally failed to address basic issues like enhancing
the productive base of the society and youth empowerment.
Thus, the paper concludes that poverty alleviation programmes can only make
meaning when they seek a radical transformation of the society through qualitative and
mass education both in rural and urban centres among other things.