The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)

Preceding NEEDS was the National Economic Direction (1999-2003). The measure combined sweeping privatization and deregulation with increased spending on social welfare programs. Yet, the enactment of these promised reforms was slow even though the government was receiving new streams of funds from the liquidation of public enterprises, rising oil prices, and the repossession of Abacha’s stolen wealth (Ikeanyibe, 2009).

After winning reelection in 2003, Obasanjo and other government officials declared it was time for a newer, bolder plan to guide Nigeria’s development. Thus, came the creation of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). According to President Obasanjo, the stated goal of NEEDS was to: “… mobilize the resources of Nigeria to make a fundamental break with the failures of the past and bequeath a united and prosperous nation to generations to come (IMF, 2005, iii).” The four priorities of NEEDS focused on (IMF, 2005, iii):

1. laying a solid foundation for sustainable poverty reduction,
2. employment generation,
3. wealth creation,
4. value reorientation

NEEDS along with its state version, the State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEEDS), and localized version, the Local Government Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (LEEDS) sought to unify the country on a path of inclusive development. On paper, NEEDS strived for a five percent decrease in poverty per year from 2004 to 2007 (IMF, 2005). While NEEDS acknowledged the importance of private sector growth, it also accepted the critical role of the government in tackling poverty and that it is the government’s duty to ensure that every Nigerian “has the right to adequate water and sanitation, nutrition, clothing, shelter, basic education, and health care, as well as physical security and the means of making a living” (Ugwu, 2012, 26).

Was NEEDS the key to poverty reduction? Could a second-term democratically elected government finally bring prosperity to country’s most unfortunate?