Urbanisation, Labour Migration and Rural Development in Nigeria

Urbanisation, Labour Migration and Rural Development in Nigeria: Examining the Internal Core and Periphery Relations Paper Presented at Nigerian Anthropological and Sociological Practitioners Association (NASA) 22nd Annual Conference on Contours of Change, Modern

. University of Ibadan, Nigeria. 6th-9th November.

Conflict and Mode of Production in Nigeria

*Shittu, Olamide Sarafadeen *Akanle, Olayinka (PhD) *Taiwo, Patricia Awa (PhD)

*Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan

Sub-Themes •

Introduction

•

Relating World-Systems Perspective to Urban-Rural Relations

•

Movement of Human and Natural Resources from Rural Areas to Urban Centres

•

Unequal Power Relations and Policy Decision-making in Rural Development Agenda

•

Conclusion: Promoting Sustainable Development in Rural Areas in Nigeria

Introduction • Western Capitalism and Globalisation drive African dependence • Resource exploitation is perpetrated by Multinational Corporations through the World Capitalist System • The WCS Core-Periphery relations is replicated at Urban-Rural level in Developing Countries

• Nigeria’s definitions of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ influence policy implementation

Relating World-Systems Perspective to Urban-Rural Relations

Core Countries • Top of the Resource-chain • Home of MNCs/Capitalists • Exploit Human & Natural Resources from SPh and Ph

• Engage in Capital Flights

Semi-periphery Countries • Act as buffer zone • Dependent on Core • Exploit Human & Natural Resources from SPh and Ph • Engage in Capital Flights

Periphery Countries • Dependent on Core and SPh • Exploited for Human & Natural Resources by Core and SPh

• Environmental Destruction • Underdevelopment/Stagnation

(Wallerstein, 2004)

Relating World-Systems Perspective to Urban-Rural Relations

Investment Gap

Trade Gap

Urban-Rural Relations

Skills and Tech Gap

Allocation Gap

(Streeten, 1974)

Movement of Human and Natural Resources from Rural Areas to Urban Centres • Colonial Structures and Oil discovery deepen rural underdevelopment (Abass, 2012) • Government’s ‘anti-rural’ development policies (Abass, 2012) • Rural-Urban migration worsen the phenomenon (Danejo, Abubakar, Haruna, Usman and Bawuro, 2015) • Remittances further increase rural dependence (Lucas, 2005)

Migration Rate in Niger Delta for the last 10 years as at 2010 (%) 0% 2% 6% 10%

0-10 years 30%

11-20 years 21-30 years

31-40 years 41-50 years 52%

Above 50 years

(Ofuoku and Chukwuji, 2012)

Movement of Human and Natural Resources from Rural Areas to Urban Centres • Oil exploration as drastically affected rural dwellers’ livelihoods, security and mental health (Babatunde, 2012) • Developmental projects became counterproductive because they overlooked existing institutions (Rexler, 2010) • Multinational Corporations engage in blame game without realizing the historical, political and socio-economic fallouts of over 30-years oil exploration in Niger Delta (Rexler, 2010)

Oil Spillage after three months without clean up in Niger Delta

(Friends of the Earth [Rexler, 2012])

Unequal Power Relations and Policy Decision-making in Rural Development Agenda •

Rural development programmes in Nigeria include: Operation Feed the Nation of 1976; Better Life Programme for Rural Women (BLP) of 1987; and National Economic Empowerments and Development Strategy (NEEDS) of 2004 (Paul, Agba and Chukwurah, 2014).

•

A common denominator of majority of the programmes is their immediate or eventual collapse (Sam, 2014).

•

Reasons for failure include corruption, lack of political motivation, local government ineptitude, poor financing, unsustainable implementation, lack of inclusive governance and over-ambitious plans among others (Egbe, 2014)

•

A review of Nigeria’s 2016 budget using IMF’s budget assessment indicators show several aspects of the budget did not match up with specific projects (Olakojo, Yusuf and Oloko, 2016).

Conclusion: Promoting Sustainable Development in Rural Areas in Nigeria •

Rural dwellers should have self-determination concerning issues that affect their means of survival.

•

Government at all levels should embrace inclusive grassroots governance that will see rural dwellers participate actively in the assessment of their social problems and the solutions to them.

•

Participatory vulnerability analysis at the community level will rapidly promote and sustain efforts at getting the locales involved in rural issues.

•

There is a significant relationship between grassroots participation in development programmes and decision making process and sustainability of development programmes (Abiona and Bello, 2013)

•

Policymakers should ensure they develop sustainable policies that will reduce rural-urban migration and also improve environmental and living conditions of rural dwellers through proper economic regulations.

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