Empowering The Poor Or Enriching The Rich: President Muhammadu Buhari’s Empowerment Programmes And The Dialectics Of Poverty Alleviation In Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the paradoxical outcomes of President Muhammadu Buhari’s empowerment programmes and their effectiveness in alleviating poverty in Nigeria between 2015 and 2023. Despite Nigeria’s vast natural and human resources, over 63 percent of its population remains multidimensionally poor, underscoring the urgency of credible poverty alleviation strategies. Buhari’s administration introduced the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) including N-Power, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), Conditional Cash Transfers, and the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme intended to create jobs, empower vulnerable households, and stimulate grassroots economic development. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this study integrates quantitative data from government and international reports with qualitative insights from interviews and focus groups conducted across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Findings revealed that while the initiatives achieved short-term gains such as temporary income support, modest business growth, and improved school attendance structural weaknesses limited their transformative potential. Key challenges included poor targeting, corruption, political patronage, inadequate funding, and weak institutional frameworks. Additionally, limited integration with long-term human capital development strategies, alongside gender and regional disparities, hindered sustainable poverty reduction. The study concludes that the programmes often functioned more as consumption-smoothing mechanisms than as enduring solutions to multidimensional poverty. It recommends strengthening governance and accountability, expanding investments in education and healthcare, and aligning empowerment initiatives with broader economic diversification to ensure that future social interventions achieve lasting poverty alleviation.