Mass Poverty in Nigeria: Cultural Bases, Causes and Remedies

This paper examines the issue of poverty in contemporary Nigerian society. The new thing about poverty in Nigeria now is that it has become a large-scale affliction. Mass poverty in the country has its genesis in the oil glut of the 80's and the subsequent introduction of economic structural adjustment which, far from being a remedy, has pushed Nigerians, with the exception of the ruling class, further into poverty. Apart from these, mass poverty in Nigeria, is tacitly encouraged by the government whose various policies and programmes have been tailored to further impoverish the masses. The widespread poverty in Nigeria is webbed around a culture that situates people and their offsprings in a particular social strata and engenders certain norms and practices that ensure that they not only remain there but accept their situation as normal. The best ways out of mass poverty in Nigeria may be in the provision of good leadership, equitable distribution of resources, improvements in amenities and more importantly, a cultural revival aimed at tackling wrong norms that support poverty. (African Anthropologist: 2002 1(9): 4-16)