‘FG lacks political will to alleviate poverty’

A professor of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Mohammed Afolabi Oladoja, alleges that the Federal Government lacks the political will to alleviate poverty in the country.

Oladoja spoke yesterday while delivering the 87th inaugural lecture of the university, with the theme “Poverty and Penury in Plenty: The Agricultural Extension Agenda.”

He alleged that poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria had not yielded positive results because “they were declarative without concrete and concerted efforts.”

He also slammed successive administrations for embarking on what he called multiplicity of policies “without genuine commitment to their sustainability.”

The don said: “achieving food security does not eliminate hunger” as hunger is a money problem, not a food problem.”

He called on the Federal Government to decentralise agricultural extension, restructure its budget and adopt “a pragmatic approach that will facilitate poverty reduction in rural and urban areas to enhance people’s livelihood, productivity and incomes.”

He said “The development of agriculture is antidote to poverty reduction. So far, Nigeria has formulated and adopted a multiplicity of poverty reduction policies and programmes and has embarked on a journey with the appropriate road map, but without genuine commitment to their sustainability on the part of successive governments.”