CHAPTER ONE
1.1    INTRODUCTION
Poverty, as of its multidimensional nature, does not lend itself to easy definition.  Poverty is also a relative concept involving the individual perception of his/her social standing inrelation to others in a given society. Such idea informs the stand of those economists who believe that poverty cannot be measured.  Okoh, (1998).
However, different researchers have tried to define poverty. For instance, Ravallion andBidani (1994) refer to poverty as a lack of command over basic consumption needs that are a situation of inadequate level of command over basic rise to insufficient food, clothing and shelter. Aluko N.L. (1975), Sen N.L. (1987) defined poverty as a lack of certain capabilities such as being able to participate with dignity in societal endeavors.
Poverty has also been defined as the inability to attain a minimum standard of living.  World Development Report,( 1990).
Definition a poor person A poor person is considered as one without job, who canno help himself or cater for his family, who has no money, farm or business. Adolescent males and females are poor if they have no parent, no education, no good food, clothes and health. A poor person is described as one who is undernourished and aging fast, one without self confidence, looks dirty and lives in filthy environment, one who cannot cater for his family, train his children in the school and unable to pay medical bill (The World Bank, 1992)
The major category of people vulnerable to poverty are women and children, majority of whom live in the rural areas, or migrate from rural areas with cannot fit into many of theurban jobs. Aina and Odebiyi (1997) attributed urban poverty to high rate of urbanization, accompanied with high rate of migration, population density, high rate of population growth, the unemployment, inflation and bad governance (such that urban centres in Nigeria generally lack basic social infrastructures to meet the needs of the teaming population.
Poverty becomes widespread in Nigeria after the implementation of Structural AdjustmentProgramme (SAP) in Nigeria. When Babangida seized the government from Buhari, the former agreed to implement the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionality becausepoverty had become glaring in Nigeria most especially among the rural dwellers leading torural-urban migration. It is in record that Babangida wasted more than 100 billion Naira on phantom projects, D.O. Elumilade, (2006). These projects included the one initiated by his wife, Better Life progammes for the poor, DEFRI, People's Bank of Nigeria, two democratic transition experiments and other big time corruption in Babangida regime enrichedthemselves D.O. Elumilade, (2006).
Poverty in Nigeria cuts across different strata of the society in all the thirty six states and Abuja the FCT of the country. However, the position of Lagos state as the former capital of Nigeria as well as the commercial nerve centre of the country made the problem to be morepronounced. Lagos poses as an attraction various rural settlements in Nigeria; particularly the youths who see Lagos as a place full of economical opportunities.
However, the excessive influx of people from all parts of the country into Lagos over the lasty affected the economy distribution of wealth, resources and infrastructures.  This has created a form of economic imbalance whereby the available wealth, resources and infrastructures appear to be distributed among the influential and the elites in the society.