Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion in Nigeria

A Dependency Theory-based Insight

Abstract

Poverty remains an incurable nagging phenomenon which defies many known measures hence the widespread poor access to food and descent living. The work discusses inequality and social exclusion as being dependent on poverty in the African continent as evidenced by the continued gap between the poor and the rich at the micro level. It is more glaring at the macro-economic sphere on the interactions between the advanced and the third world countries hence the existence of visible disparity and inequality. This work maintains that the prevalent poverty in Africa and Nigeria is blamed on the neo-colonial maneuver by the advanced countries; hence the work adopts Dependency Theory as espoused by Fernando Henrique Cardoso to explain the unequal relationships between the developing states of Africa and the developed economies of the world. The study relies on the secondary source of data collection which is premised on qualitative method using Ex Post Facto design analysis. It recommends that Nigeria and by extension Africa should look inward to wrestle themselves from imposed defeatism hence continued dependence on the external economies is tantamount to deepening backwardness of the already fragile economies. More so, there is overwhelming need to diversify the economic base of the struggling economies, so as to pull them out of inequality and social exclusion. The work also calls on the political class to stop superfluous life style that predisposes the ordinary citizens to live in penury and misery.