Some academics have faulted the Federal Government’s poverty alleviation programme, saying, governments past and present, had failed to effectively curb poverty in the country despite numerous promises.
The academics who spoke at the weekend during the Mohammed Mustapha Charity Academy, in Ilorin, Kwara State, said stipends would not tackle abject poverty in Nigeria.
The Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Dr Kayode Adam, and a professor of law with the same university’.
Muhammed Akanbi, said inspite of the various poverty alleviation programmes of previous administration,” there is still mass poverty” in the land.
They stated that though former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan promised to reduce poverty through various programmes, there was greater hardship in the country.
The first female professor of Quantity Surveying in Africa, Prof. Olubola Babalola, who was also at the event stated that though the programmes of the past administrations were well initiated, their implementation was ineffective.
“Buhari’s administration should look inward and get to the grassroots with a view to identifying the really poor people”, she said.
According to her, there was need for proper interaction with the rural populace in order to ascertain their areas of need so that such needs would be properly addressed.
“It is not by giving them stipends, let us interact with them and know their problems and how we can assist them”, she said.
She reiterated that the rural people needed to be gainfully employed, adding that it should not be in the area of the much talked about white collar jobs, but jobs that they can do.
The dons further urged Buhari to ensure that his poverty alleviation and social security programmes benefit the masses.