Poverty is the summary measure of the state of well-being of a
people, and hence the effectiveness of governance. Embedded in
the measurement of poverty are such variables as income,
education, employment, and access to basic necessities of life
such as housing, clothing, food, water, etc. Breaking the
vicious circle of poverty and inequality vis-a-vis insecurity,
low savings - low investment and low and fragile growth traps
constitute a central concern of public policy. In Nigeria, most
people can FEEL the poverty burden - on the streets and the high
level of dependency. A deepening crisis which receives little
attention is the breakdown of the social ladder, values, and
networks traditionally used in our society to climb out of
poverty. Poverty is consequently becoming an inheritance - a
dynasty - whereby the children of the poor will, in all
likelihood, end up poor. Increasingly, the rich won’t be able to
sleep because the hungry and angry poor are awake! If the
statistics released by the National Bureau o