Leadership (Abuja)
Catherine Agbo
19 November 2008
The National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) is an agency created by government in its resolve to provide a better life for its citizens, by eradicating poverty in the country.
The programme, which started as Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP),metamorphosed into Poverty Eradication Programme (PEP), and later NAPEP is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that abject poverty, which the National Coordinator, Dr Magnus L. Kpakol, described as a disease programme is totally eradicated and kicked out of the Nigerian state.
Dr Kpakol who is also Senior Special Assistant to the President on poverty Eradication, a seasoned administrator, during his tenure has initiated and implemented several projects geared towards the eradication of poverty in the country and the development of communities. These projects were aimed at creating jobs for the populace through training in skills acquisition and providing them with micro-credit facilities to help them grow, which will among other things reduce rural- urban migration.
Some of NAPEP's intervention schemes are the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), Rural Infrastructures Development Scheme (RIDS) , Social Welfare Services Scheme (SOWESS), and Natural Resources Development and Conservation Scheme (NRDCS). These schemes have recorded among other things intervention by direct credit delivery, farmers empowerment, KEKE NAPEP project, community skills development centres and collaboration activities with international development partners, notably the UNDP and World Bank.
Central to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's 7-Point development agenda for the country is poverty eradication and in realising this, the president is committed to mass participation in the economic development process, which involves our local communities and villages. Herein lies the relevance of the Economic Development Solutions (Village Solutions), which is one of NAPEP's programmes.
Village Solutions is a local community-driven development programme designed by the Economic Growth and Development Centre (EGDC), a subsidiary of NAPEP. The scheme is geared towards guiding villages and communities in their community economic development efforts that involve modernising their villages and promoting income generation activities.
It is the belief in many communities that government alone should be responsible for efforts aimed at developing communities. It is sad to note that communities today find it a Herculean task to organise themselves and solve their immediate problems. There are cases where even government developmental efforts are thwarted by the people, otherwise, what do you say of a community where drainages are constructed by the government and same is turned into refuse dump and when there is a flood, they call on government to come to their aid.
Through the village solutions, villages are encouraged to see community development and poverty eradication as a joint responsibility in which every member of the village is a stakeholder and can be an active participant. It is a bottom to top approach to community development where villages organise themselves into community development groups, with the government providing technical expertise and an enabling environment.
It is hoped that the Village Economic Solutions through its objectives which include among other things, to reduce intergenerational poverty; curb rural-urban migration; promote effective mass participation in the economic development process in Nigeria; promote community driven development; develop local skills and promote a meaningful collaboration between the organized private sector (OPS), local and state governments and international partners in community development efforts, would transform and modernize village economics, through human and physical development, to raise village income, output and employment levels with the view of eliminating extreme poverty and reducing its intergenerational transfer.
NAPEP in the exercise of its coordination and monitoring mandate brings together the stakeholders which are federal government, state governments, local governments, village heads and representatives, private sector investors and businesses as well as Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Development Associations (CDAs), for the success of the scheme. How will the project be implemented after all the stakeholders are brought together?
The NAPEP Joint Implementation Committee (JIC), made up of representatives of the federal, state, and local governments, through the state multi-partner matching funds (MP-MF),provides a platform upon which economic development can start in a village. Community sensitization workshops are organised where local governments and villages are advised to provide necessary facilities that will serve as incentives and encouragement for private businesses to operate within the community. Poverty solutions is carried out in participating villages to determine areas of economic comparative advantage, technical expertise, viability of proposed projects and more.
To further stimulate development within the community, the village trust fund is created to promote micro finance and community projects such as safe drinking water, educational and health facilities. A village manager is to be appointed by each participating village, by the collective decision of the village through established traditional institutions. This manager could be an NGO or micro-finance institution.The rule of law is applied in the appointment of the village manager who must possess competence and required expertise to guide sustainable community economic development in an efficient and sustainable manner. The manager will be required to organize the community to form viable Community Development Associations where none exist.
The village solutions scheme aims to accomplish, among other things, modernisation of the village, community development, better appreciation of governments role in village modernisation and community development and effective mass participation in economic development process. How far have the village solutions gone in accomplishing these things?
Most Nigerian villages and communities are very far from modernisation. Even the very basic necessities of life that should be the right of every citizen such as access to good health facilities, potable drinking water, electricity, which is considered a luxury even in the urban areas, and the right to basic education for every Nigerian child are still a mirage. The people, especially the rural dwellers, cannot appreciate the role of government in developing and modernising their communities, when they cannot sell their farm produce because of their inability to take the produce to the market because of the state of the roads that have made them simply impassible. This is one of the problems militating against the accomplishment of the village solutions scheme.
The fight against poverty is one that must not be handled with kid gloves. For poverty to be eradicated or at least reduced to the barest minimum, all stakeholders in the struggle must pursue vigorously the village solutions programme, to ensure it is fully understood and implemented assiduously for the benefit of the poor in Nigeria. The three tiers of government, who are partners in the fight against poverty should fast track the achievement of the intended objectives of the scheme so that the eradication of poverty especially at the grassroots where the incidence is most prevalent can be attained.
A change in the attitude of Nigerians towards the development of their communities is one problem begging to be solved. Until Nigerians realise the need to develop their communities or at least complement the efforts of government towards development will the effort yield any result. Money allocated for execution of projects should not be embezzled but put into judicious use for what it is meant. NAPEP as the main government agency in the fight against poverty has done a lot but more needs to be done to make sure the development programmes get to the target group of people. All stakeholders must, therefore, wake up to their responsibilities so that the Millennium Development Goals as well as the vision of the country to be among the twenty developed and industrialised countries in the world by Year 2020 (Vision 20-2020) can be achieved.
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