Interview: China's fight against poverty creates pathway for developing nations: Nigerian expert

ABUJA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- China's successful fight against poverty has created a pathway to be followed by developing nations seeking to lift a large population of its citizens out of the shackles of poverty within a stipulated time, a Nigerian expert said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Sheriff Ghali Ibrahim, head of the department of political science and international relations at the University of Abuja, said China, in its bid to lift more than 800 million people out of poverty in less than eight years, using practicable strategies, has proved to be a "pathfinder".

"China has been the greatest country in the world by reducing the poverty rate around the world. There is no doubt about it; even the western nations know about this. The developing nations, especially in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean should try to emulate China in its fight and war against poverty," Ibrahim said.

In hindsight, he said China's resourcefulness had played a key role in its strategic fight against poverty, urging developing nations with abundant natural resources to tap into them and explore effectively while planning a national strategy to fight poverty.

Ibrahim, who has authored several books on international relations, politics, and political economy, noted the only way for humanity to thrive and survive is when nations are able to fight poverty. He said China while deploying its resourcefulness to the fight against poverty had engaged the rural dwellers, and made alternative provisions for them to earn more income and be lifted out of their poverty level.

"Poverty is not unsolvable. It is something that can be solved by using all the yardsticks as well as the modus operandi through which the government can actually strategize, create a kind of development plan and implement it," the university don said.

"Each and every country has plans in fighting poverty. But if you critically look at such plans, they are inefficient and ineffective as a result of the lack of implementation of such policies in fighting poverty," Ibrahim said.

According to the global affairs analyst, most countries fail to faithfully carry out their poverty alleviation plans because their resources are not properly harnessed or injected to improve the lives of the affected citizens.

"There are no adequate resources to actually inject into the people, for people to appreciate, for the lives of people to actually change; especially in the shelter where they live, what they wear, what they eat, medication, as well as, ultimately, the job which people will do in order to be earning as income for their own sustainability and for their own survival. These are some of the things that the third world nations must actually learn to drastically work on resources," he explained.

The scholar also advised developing nations to take the fight against corruption seriously, citing the sincerity of purpose of the Chinese leadership to crack down on corrupt officials while working out ways to alleviate poverty.