By John Azu
Experts on China-Africa cooperation have reiterated calls for learning and adaptation of lessons to address the problem of poverty in Nigeria.
They made the call on Tuesday at the workshop on the theme: “Nigeria’s poverty alleviation efforts: Adopting China modules and its relevance in a new era – The place of policy makers, development partners, stakeholders and diplomatic reporters” organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria (DICAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Earlier in his address, the Ambassador of China to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai said the Communist Party of China (CPC) had always viewed development as the most effective way to eliminate poverty, adding that by promoting high-quality development, the country has addressed the imbalances and inadequacies in development, creating the twin miracles of rapid economic growth and modern social stability for its people of over 1.4 billion.
The Ambassador, who was represented by the Counselor, Economic and Commercial Office of the China Embassy in Nigeria, Sun Xuekun, said achieved the removal of over 800 million from extreme poverty, helping the world eliminate 70 per cent of global poverty, through institutional and policy reforms.
“China is continuously removing the institutional and structural barriers that cause poverty. At the same time, China has actively embraced the globalisation and expanded its open-arm policy. Both adapted to the reality, the problem of poverty and the root causes are complex and diverse,” he said.
“To tackle poverty, the policies and measures must be grounded in reality, but just adapting the times, circumstances, and local conditions, and continuously innovate strategies and policies to improve effectiveness. China has based its efforts on its own national conditions, exploring paths suited to China according to the characteristics of poverty and development stages, and the specific realities of the four regions. China has always adhered to seeking the truth rather than the facts, keeping pace with the times, and flexibly adjusting its strategies and methods to ensure that the measures are practical and effective.
“In the new era, the targeted poverty mitigation strategy has shifted from the approach of extensive irrigation to precise, strict irrigation. Resource allocation from fragmented to coordinated, models from the large transfusion to the large and evaporation from focussing on GDP to focussing on real poverty alleviation outcomes. This fully fulfils all suppositions.”
In his presentation, the provost of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Prof Sherif Ghali Ibrahim, listed some of the poverty alleviation strategies adopted by China to include: targeted intervenions after household profiling, loans schemes, trainings, digital economy, relocation and resettlement, infrastructure, pairing of regions, and the 10,000 enterprises help 10,000 villages private sector-led initiative.
Similarly, the Dr Austin Maho warned of Nigeria’s population time bomb if government fails to live up to its responsibility to the people in eradicating poverty.
The Sarkin Pai, Abubakar Sani Pai, who served in the FCT poverty allevation committee, listed some of the programmes adopted by the panel towards eliminating poverty in the 855 communities covered while pleading for more access road to enable farmers access markets, avoid wastes and loses to middlemen.
The same position was expressed by the Executive Director of the Centre for China Studies, Charles Onunaiju, who maintained that China has shown that poverty is eradicable and defeatable if the government prioritises it and collapse all institutions towards the struggle.
He said the people can produce themselves out of poverty if the right incentives are available, adding “most of the rural communities are disconnected. Someone just commented that farmers are unable to move their goods to the market, so how do they get out of poverty?”
Earlier, the chairman of DICAN Idehai Frederick stressed the importance of the theme on evaluating Nigeria’s poverty alleviation pathways through the lens of China’s poverty alleviation model could not be more urgent.
“As developing nations navigate economic recalibrations, food security hurdles, and structural shifts, exploring proven developmental frameworks is not merely academic, it is an imperative for sustainable governance,” he added.
