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IFF President Calls for Revolution Against Poverty and Deprivation
On the occasion of Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary, Prof. Emeka Oguzie, President of the International Family Foundation (IFF), in sobriety to the current State of affairs of the NIGERIAN FAMILY and most families in developing countries, is calling for a peaceful and systematic revolution against poverty ravaging most families, which constitutes the worst setback towards real independence.
Briefing newsmen in Owerri, he lamented the situation of the Nigerian Family, referring to its pitiable and sad.
“The conditions of most families have degenerated so much that this abject poverty mirrors what is prevalent in the society – high level criminality, corruption, mistrust, desperation, hunger, hopelessness, confusion and fear.”
The Professor of Chemistry wondered how a people can celebrate independence when they are overpowered by poverty and lack of basic necessities of life. True national independence he said, must necessarily be derived from assured independence and self-reliance of the individual family units.
Human conditions have greatly deteriorated, particularly in the last two decades, with real disposable incomes dwindling and rates of poverty and deprivation on the increase.
He acknowledged that the campaign against poverty has been a central plank of development planning in Nigeria since independence and even beyond. However, it as well general knowledge that the interventions by successive governments did not succeed in attaining the objectives for which they were established.
It has been widely suggested that those interventions were mostly not designed to alleviate poverty in the real sense, being predominantly epitomized by corruption on the part of the proponents and operators in government.
Accordingly, such interventions were largely poorly implemented and often lacked continuity,
enduring steady disruptions from social instabilities and political interference.
Prof. Oguzie echoed the belief in several quarters that poverty is primarily caused by INADEQUACIES – Inadequate access to employment opportunities; inadequate physical infrastructure to support entrepreneurship and enterprise; inadequate access to the means of supporting rural development; inadequate access to markets for agricultural produce, goods and services; inadequate human capital; inadequate participation of the poor in the design of development programs. Others are inadequacies in education and capacity development; inadequacies in management and conservation of natural resources; inadequacies in providing support and assistance for those living at the margin and those victimized by transitory poverty because of drought, floods, pests and war; inadequacies in maintenance culture or failure to retain and maintain existing structures, leading to deterioration in rural, urban, and high way roads and township slums and drainages; and the list goes on!
Prof. Oguzie stated that the International Family Foundation has positioned itself to stimulate advocacy and actions against poverty.
“We have an integrated and systematic strategy to amplify this issue of endemic poverty, towards proffering immediate and far reaching mediations”
he said.
The Foundation has as well assembled a top-rate team of consultants, professionals and volunteers to engage governments at various levels towards providing expert advice on p ractical and efficient ways of implement poverty alleviation initiatives. He then presented two of the Foundation’s programmes for immediate and far-reaching mediations as follows:
1. The IFF’s Feed th Poor programme: A short-term intervention, focused on bringing some partial alleviation to very poor families, through direct food donations. The Foundation is looking towards partnerships with various companies, individuals to achieve this.
2. The IFF’s “In Search of te Poorest Family in Nigeria” project: A long-term project, which intends to showcase, through rigorous evaluation techniques, the poorest families in Nigeria, from the LGA, State, Regional and National levels. This project shall develop reality TV shows to provide a realtime expose, to draw attention to the situations and plights of the very poor families amongst us. The Foundation is looking towards robust partnerships with corporations, various governments and international agencies to achieve this.
“We must become more courageous in tackling this issue of poverty head-on, to
stimulate national development”,
he reiterated.
Noting that the Government is doing its best to ameliorate these situations, he also pointed out that until we are able to translate beyond these insufficiencies in basic needs like food, shelter, power, security and self-assurance, we cannot begin focus on real development in the areas of science, technology and innovation, which are the drivers of the 4th industrial revolution. Indeed, true independence will be achieved only when our science, technology and innovation interventions as a nation, our accumulated expertise and knowledge base, all work together to positively impact and flourish the lives of the people.
Professor Emeka Oguzie
President, International Family Foundation
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