IMPACTS OF POVERTY ON DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF OYO EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT). A RESEARCH PROJECT MATERIAL ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
ABSTRACT
The main objective of the study is to analyse how poverty affects political development and primary data was collected from the field keeping in mind the objective of the study, dedicated questionnaire was used to gauge the factors affecting political development in Nigeria.120 respondent were surveyed of which 118 responded and completely filled the questionnaire which was verified, checked and matched manually. This shows 98% response rate. Therefore, required analysis was done with the aid of Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 17.0 versions.
The analysis shows that Politics is positively significant to development which have 0.64 coefficient that is to say 64% of the variable is explain by this variable (β=0.433.;t=1.765;p<0.001),while poverty (β=0.356.;t=1.5; 1.795p<0.001) is positively significant, that is to say that poverty encourages democratic development in Nigeria
Key words: politics, poverty, political development, Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Nigeria is a West African country with about 170 million people (ploch, 2012). It is by far the most populous country in the whole of Africa (Ucha, 2010) and host about “one-sixth of the black population in the world” (Chukwuemeka, 2009). It is a country that is highly endowed with human and natural resources. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2004 reports that Nigeria’s “crude oil reserves were estimated at 24 billion barrels in 2001” (USAID, 2007:1), and it has the 8th largest deposit of natural gas in the world (Chukwuemeka, 2009). By 2002, agriculture comprised 30 percent, mining and quarrying 37 percent, services 29 percent and manufacturing 4 percent of GDP (USAID, 2007:1), with over $500 billion in petroleum export since independence (Lewis, 2006).
In spite of the great endowments in both human and natural resources, particularly, the huge oil wealth and revenues, Nigeria still remain a poor country with per capita income average of $350 as at 2003 (USAID, 2007). In the words of Nwaobi, “Nigeria presents a paradox” (Oshewolo, 2010:) owing to the fact that since independence, majority of its population has remained poor in the midst of abundance. The UNDP has classified the country as 141 poorest nations on human development index. In its report, Nigeria is considered one of the 20th poorest countries in the world with 70% of the population classified as poor and 54.4% living in absolute poverty (Ugoh and Ukpere, 2009).
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