BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI— NIGERIANS have been warned that eradication of poverty and hunger may remain a mirage in the country despite the declarations by the federal and state governments to abide with the Millennium Development Goals.

The Acting Head, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Osun State University, Osogbo, Professor Samson Akinola, gave the warning in a paper entitled, “The logic of planning process and security challenges in Nigeria: A polycentric planning and poverty reduction strategy”, which he delivered yesterday in Owerri, at the 44th annual conference of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, NITP.

His words: “In spite of the declaration by Nigerian governments to abide by the MDGs’ poverty reduction incentives, they are yet to understand how to engage institutional mechanisms and polycentric development planning to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.”

According to him, the bane of the land use/development planning and poverty eradication in Nigeria was largely a case of institutional dilemma, as there was an absence of appropriate institutional mechanisms to motivate most Nigerians to work together as partners.

While saying that the nation’s economy was in disarray, Professor Akinola, however, argued that government officials, scholars, industrialists, the organised private sector and peasant farmers, operated on parallel lines.