Poverty Causes: Rural Poor Perceptions in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

About 25% of the world’s 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty are in sub-Saharan Africa, where Nigeria is ranked among the poorest nations. States in the Middle belt and Northern Nigeria have the highest population of the poor. Benue State belongs to the Middle belt, with severe, multidimensional and widespread poverty increasing considerably in the last two decades. Government and development partners often base their design and implementation of poverty
interventions in rural communities on universal causes of poverty, leading to partial success or outright failure of such programmes, often abandoned by the target group. This study enquired into the rural poor perspectives of the causes of poverty in Aokpe and Ohirigwe communities in Benue State, Nigeria. Governance issues, like inept government leadership and non-involvement of citizens in decision-making, which are commonly listed causes of poverty in development literature, were rated low. Enriching of the lexicon of poverty studies were alcoholism, womanizing, witchcraft, and
gambling - new submissions added to the list of causes of poverty. The paper recommends the accommodation of these actual causes of rural poverty to position the government and development partners to design and implement better informed and more effective poverty interventions.