Abstract:
This work examined Political leadership and poverty eradication in Benue State with a focus on Benue State economic empowerment development strategy programme between 1999 and 2007. The research questions pertinent to this study were: Did the Benue State Economic Empowernment Development Strategy impact positively on poverty level in Benue State between 1999 and 2007? Did shifts in political leadership affect the performance of the poverty eradication programme in Benue State between 1999 and 2007? The Marxist Political economy approach was adopted as our theoretical framework of analysis and we also relied on the qualitative method of data collection as well as the ex-post facto research design and the descriptive qualitative method of data analysis. These provided the basis for validating our hypotheses that the Benue State Economic Development Strategy did not impact positively on poverty level in Benue State between 1999 and 2007. The shift in Political leadership did not affect positively the performance of poverty eradication programme in Benue State between 1999 and 2007
