A Proposal on Management of Rural-urban Migration and Economic Development in Nigeria (Calabar as a Case Study)
Preamble o the Study
Basically, in Nigeria, urban cities are springing up and people are migrating from the rural areas to urban areas. They have different reasons for migrating from rural areas to urban centres, these reasons may include among others, lack of employment opportunities, lack of infrastructural facilities, educational institution etc. According to Afolayan (1995), rural areas can be easily identified by various criteria, apart from population. Such criteria include the level of infrastructural development i.e. road networks, educational institutions, water supply, electricity, health facilities, communication, etc. Other criteria used include occupation, housing, extent of community planning etc. Ezeah (2005) argued that rural areas refer to geographical areas that lie outside the densely built-up environment of towns, cities and the sub-urban villages and whose inhabitants are engaged primarily in agriculture as well as, the most basic of rudimentary form of secondary and tertiary activities. Rural area, which is the opposite of an urban area, refers to the country side whose population engages mainly in primary production activities like agriculture, fishing, and rearing of livestock (Ele, 2006). Nyagba, (2009) noted that about 90 percent of the rural labour workforce engages directly or indirectly in agriculture.
The burden of rural-urban migration in Calabar is multifaceted. For instance, in examining the management of rural-urban migration and its effect on economic development, has it result to increase in population in the urban areas while the rural areas lack development or at the extreme its explosion. Various other effects are expected to be considered. Population explosion activates the housing challenges both at micro (family) and macro (society) levels. Congestion in households and communities has implications for both the health and psychology of victims. Nigerian cities such as Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Kano, and Onitsha among others are characterized by human traffic, vehicular congestions, environmental pollution, consistent in-migration and spurious expansion of territories to accommodate human additions.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Impact of Rural-Urban Migration on Economic Development
According to Oderth (2002) migration has shaped the nature of both receiving and places of origin more than any other phenomenon in human geography. The existence of an intricate relationship between immigration and development is also captured by Hammer et al. (2002), who claim that migration can have a decisive impact on the direction and speed of development on both origin and destination. The existing research on the impact of rural-urban migration on development in Nigeria is also limited and inconclusive. Fadayomi (1998) reveals that internal migration has a negative impact on the quality of rural life because it reduces the number of individuals in rural areas. Migration of young adults from the rural areas places general persistence of rural-urban and rural –rural migration types. On the other hand, studies by Ijere (1994) reveal that rural–urban migration has a positive impact on urban growth and social development, which makes generation of employment opportunities and provision of educational facilities and transportation infrastructure for the migrants possible. Until recently, researchers have not paid much attention to the management of rural –urban drift. Ekpenyong (1992) attributes rural-urban migration in West Africa to the limited economic development policy which started during the colonial era. The colonial government had an urban biased development policy. The towns where they lived consequently had social amenities and economic infrastructure while the rural areas had the following negative effects; malnutrition, insufficient housing, inadequate water supply, bad roads and poor health facilities. Likewise, Ekpenyong (1997) in his study on ruralurban migration presents a form of inequalities between the areas. “Ruralurban imbalance was not created by oil boom of the 1970’s but worsened by it because of the bias in development planning”. As the policy continued, oil or fuel replaced agriculture as the major source of revenue for the country. All the major benefits of economic development process went to the cities or urban areas. In contrasts, the villagers from where the oil is extracted suffer neglect and oil pollutions which destroy their lands (a case of Niger- Delta). It should be acknowledged that until sustainable rural development is attained there can be no claim of national economic development. Ewimn (2010) opined that the comfort and socio-economic wellbegin of the rural dweller underscores the reason for rural development. It has the potentials to bring about improved access to resources, employment creation, construction and maintenance of roads, rural electrification, water supply, improved education and health care services that can improve the life of the people.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work. The choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to management of rural-urban migration and economic development in Nigeria (Calabar as a case study)
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