p-ISSN 2477-0531 e-ISSN 2622-8386 Asian Journal for Poverty Studies 5(1): 15 - 24 (2019) 15 MAGNITUDE, VICISSITUDES AND REMEDIES OF URBAN POVERTY IN NORTH-EAST NIGERIA Abubakar Mohammed Sambo 1* and Abubakar Garba Mshelia 2 1 Department of Political Science, Federal University Kashere, Nigeria 2 Department of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola * Corresponding Author: asambomohammed@gmail.com ABSTRACT Nigeria is divided for political convenience, into six geo-political zones; The north east, in the last decade is in global media because of the ceaseless conflict and war-like situation between the Nigerian government and youth insurgents. The dictum of western education is “unlawful” was the agitation of the insurgents, and they seek to change the educational status quo. North East Nigeria is blessed with an arable land for agricultural activities and mineral resources. The inability and lack of the political will by the governments both at central and state governments to strategically invest in the growth of these sectors for development purposes, brought about many challenges for the north east geo-political zone. Greater percentages of the population within the north east are youths in their productive ages that were engaged in rural-urban drift in search for a better livelihood and economic comfort. This paper seeks to explore the magnitude, changes and solutions of urban poverty in north east Nigeria. The paper adopts a qualitative design to investigate the perceived economic deprivation, social challenges and political miscalculations by the state and their inability to plan for the economic well-being of its population. Data were sourced at secondary source and thematic analysis was employed for analysis. Urban poverty brought many untold hardships to the people in the north east states, Hitches arising from fast urbanization with rapid development of the cities in the North -East, are very apparent. Lack of ensuring satisfactory and steady establishment of the basic needed services such as housing, health care amenities, water, electricity etc are remains the greatest encounter. This will further incapacitate family’s social growth and economic progress unless income generating opportunities are created by policy makers and backed with a greater political will. Keywords: magnitude; vicissitudes, remedies, urban poverty, North-East Nigeria INTRODUCTION Poverty and measures to take to tackle it are among the major issues at hand in developing economies. The constraints to poverty have come to loom to threat the stability of any society. For over four decades in Nigeria, the condition of poverty has continuously become on the increase and thereby constituting a dominant subject in the country despite her relative economic capacities. Consequently, the foremost apprehension for the Nigerian state machinery, other transnational corporations and key policy formulators and experts the world over to find suitable way out in order to lessen its scourging effects on the populace. The finding recently, is that poverty is a serious phenomenon of concern (World Bank, 1990; Fields, 2000; World Bank, 2001). From the record’s accessible figures, poverty incidence in the country, south of the Sahara, revealed that, while there is an increase in urban poverty frequency, till now, urban poverty situation in Nigeria remains a contradiction. This is based on two standpoints. Firstly, the figures of poverty in Nigeria is a contradiction because the poverty level appears as a looking at the Nigeria’s enormous wealth. Secondly, the worsened effects of poverty with the enormous resources both in human capital and substantial non-human capitals that is strategically placed to reduce poverty by the previous administrations in the country, but no considerable accomplishment achieved from such efforts. Nonetheless, looking at urban poverty issue, it has, and will continuously be issues for serious governments and transnational institutions to focus attention and dissipate more energies with the view of finding a desirable way-out for some time to come. Certainly, reducing urban poverty is now in the forefront for key policy planners and state-actors together with donor-agencies in Nigeria.