SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF POVERTY REDUCTION AND DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT IN NIGERIA: A CRTIIQUE

Abstract

This paper addressed the issue of socio-educational implications of poverty reduction in the process of democratizing Nigerian society.  The study observed that poverty is a living condition in Nigeria, so its alleviation is indispensable under the present democratic experiment.  To this end, the paper discusses the various poverty reduction programmes of the government by highlighting their impacts and the socio-educational implications on the masses.  But given the capitalist nature of the Nigerian society, there is no assurance that poverty reduction exercise can ever be successful. The persistent of poverty presently in Nigeria, it is evident, is not the absence of programmes aimed at its reduction, it is rather the result of their failure.  However, there is a very high probability that with the present democratic experiment and Nigeria’s political will, the government can initiate and implement programme that could help in poverty reduction.  The paper concludes that the starting point for a successful poverty reduction is from using functional education methods to attack the socio-cultural dimension of poverty problem.