Socio-Economic Development of Rural Areas in Nigeria With a Particular Reference to Kaduna South Local Government of Kaduna State
Chapter One
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the study is to find out if the strategies to rural development adopted by the Kaduna State Government promoted or retarded rural development. The specific objectives are as follows:
To assess the strategies of socioeconomic in Kaduna South between 1999 to 2021, using the three selected rural development agencies as case study.
To determine the level of involvement of the beneficiaries of rural development in the initiation and implementation of socio-economic development of rural areas in the state, using the three selected rural development agencies as case study.
To evaluate the extent of programmes success with respect to socio-economic development of rural areas in Kaduna South using the three selected institutions. i.e. Kaduna Agricultural Development Programme, Director Labour Agency, Kaduna Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency.
To recommend ways of enhancing socioeconomic in Kaduna South if need be.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
AFRICA’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT
The concept of development is relevant to human society and rural development in general. Rodney (1972) views development as a human activity, where skills are acquired, capacity is built, creativity and self-discipline are acquired in order to face the challenges of life and overcome human needs and wants. He argues that development is a universal process. However, Africa’s development was retarded because of the impact of slave trade and colonialism. The consequence of this was underdevelopment of Africa. Rodney, (1972:24) argues thus:
for the first three decades of colonialism, hardly any thing was done that could remotely be termed a service to the African people. It was infact only after the last war that social services were provided as a matter of policy. How little they amounted to does not really need illustrating. After all, the statistics which show that Africa today is underdeveloped are the ones representing the state of affairs at the end of colonialism.
Development by western scholars has been seen as synonymous with modernization or transformation from a pre-modern to modern stage (Rostow 1960, Gana, 1987; Hopkins; 1979). Hopkins (1978:27), contends that …the dependency thesis argues that “it is the external links which have created economic backwardness by forging chains of dependence and inequality between the priviledge core and the exploited periphery”. It is in this line that Walter Rodney anchors his thesis “How Europe underdeveloped Africa”
Rodney’s work is a detailed historical account of the integration of Africa in the world economy through slave trade, imperialism, colonialism, which contributed in the plunder of Africa’s human and raw materials to Europe. This action led to the stagnation of African’s development and its dependency status on Europe; hence the thesis that “Africa is underdeveloped”, because Europe plundered its resources.
Rodney contends that, “in order to understand the present economic condition, Africa has realized so little of its natural potential and one also needs to know why so much of its present wealth goes outside of the continent (Rodney, 1972:24). Bourgeois economists have refused to give a historical account of the relationship of exploitation which allowed capitalist parties the core to grow fat and impoverished the dependent (Africa), and that “the interpretation of under-development as ordained by God is simply racist and prejudice to explain the underdeveloped state of Africa.
Rodney’s methodology is a historical and detailed explanation of the factors that have led Africa not to be developed or became backward, some of which include slave-trade, imperialism, colonialism, unequal or unbalanced trade, exploitation, cultural and psychological dislocation of Africa in favour of western values. The objective of Rodney’s work is to expose the damage that Europe has done to Africa using the historical analysis methodology, so that Africans should appreciate their good past and reconstruct their development from within, using their own resources instead of depending on the west or simply modernization or westernization.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Rural development must be targeted at the people as the beneficiaries of development. Chinsman (1988:3-4) asked the question, why put people first? In his view, “development is a process of economic and social advancement which enables people to realize their potential, build self-confidence, and live lives of dignity and fulfillment. It is a process which, if sincerely implemented, frees people from evils of want, ignorance, squalor and exploitation”. Meaningful developments in general and rural development in particular require the full utilization of the nation’s own resources, both human and material.
The work by Chinsman (1983) is based on his experience in Nigeria as the UNDP Representative, where he agrees that development is about people and not objects or things. The people must come first in the process of planning for their development. He identifies the benefits of development to include economic and social advancement, building peoples’ potentials, self confidence, dignity, freedom from evils of want and deprivation, ignorance, etc. In all of these, the people must be involved from the beginning to the end of the programme and policies of government. This researcher agrees with Chinsman and sees his work as being in agreement with the bottom-up approach to rural development, which is adopted as our theoretical framework for this research.
National development without transforming the countryside is cosmetic and simply rhetorical. The Federal government, for instance, in its Third National Development- Plan 1975 -80, articulated the position thus,
In addition to raising agricultural productivity, effort will be made to enhance the quality of life in rural areas through the provision of basic social amenities such as health centres, pipe borne water, feeder roads, and electricity, the combined effect of these measures should help narrow the disparity in living standard between the urban and rural population.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research adopted the survey design. The survey research enables a researcher to study a group of people or items or a population, by collecting and analyzing data from only a few people or items considered to be representative of the entire group (population). Thus, rather than obtain data from the whole population being studied only a sample is selected from the whole through a sampling process.
SAMPLE SIZE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
The research adopted purposive sampling method, and a sample size of 300 respondents was used in this research. This was so because the researcher did not have the time and resources to study all the over 3.2 million inhabitants of Kaduna State. The purposive sampling enables the researcher to pick on target groups such as farmers, farmers cooperative societies and the community development association leaders who are resident in the local government.
Sample Size
The sample picked for this research was 300 respondents out of a total population of 3.2 million (1990 population census as projected in 2021). The 300 responents are picked from the six identified local governments where the research was conducted.
CHAPTER FOUR
DAATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
DATA PRESENTATION
TABLE 1: AREAS OF BENEFIT FROM RURAL DEVELOPMENT BY THE THREE SELECTED AGENCIES TO KADUNA STATE COMMUNITIES
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The following research findings are derived from the analysis of data and test of hypotheses.
That the yearly budgetary allocations in the states, with high presumption of rural development such as “Budget of rural transformation” “rural engineering”, etc do not translate into any significant impact on socioeconomic in Kaduna South. Besides, budgetary allocation to rural development has never exceeded 19% of the budget, despite the huge population that reside in the rural areas, budget allocation to rural development Agencies in Kaduna South from 1999 – 2021 (tables 17), is small, worst of all budgetary releases have never exceeded 1%. It is clear from the findings that government is interested in mere symbolic than substantive approach to rural development in the state.
That despite the claim by the civilian administrations in the state to serve the grass-roots as contained in their budget speeches, the beneficiaries of rural development (the people) are not involved or do not participate in the process of decision making at the level of conception or implementation of the projects that affects their well being.
That the three selected rural development agencies have not impacted positively on rural development in the state. Table 8 and 15 of this research are evident. In table 9 we established that the respondents rated the performance of the three selected rural development agencies low.
That the top-down (modernization or transformation) model of rural development adopted in the state has failed to adequately address the problems of the rural areas. This is established by the views of the managers of the three selected rural development agencies, and the poor rating of the agencies by the respondents, with a high percentage of abandoned projects by the Direct Labour Agency.
That apart from the state and local governments that played some role in rural development, the Community Based Associations, Cooperative Societies, and Faith Based Organization like ECWA are playing some role in rural development in the state, especially in the areas of health care, agriculture and sanitation where VIP toilets are provided.
CONCLUSION
The study was carried out to find out the impact of selected rural development agencies in Kaduna South on rural development. The specific areas investigated are the budgetary allocations to the three selected agencies in the state, the role of the beneficiaries in the process of decision making and implementation of the programmes of the selected agencies and the impact of the selected agencies on rural conditions or rural development in the state.
In order to solve the identified problem of study, data were collected through questionnaire, oral interview and documented information. These data were analysed and the conclusion reached, that budgetary allocations to rural development agencies in the state is very low or meger; that the beneficiaries of the rural development are not involved in decisions and implementation of programmes that are to affect their well-being; that the three selected agencies have failed to impact positively on the living conditions of the rural people in Kaduna South; that the traditional top-down model which was inherited from the colonial masters has failed to impact on rural development in the state, therefore an alternative model is required (paradigm shift).
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of this research, the following recommendations are made:
- There is the need for a paradigm shift from the traditional (modernization) or top-down model of rural development to the bottom up, participatory approach to rual development in Kaduna South.
- The agencies engaged in rural development be properly funded and given free hand to operate in order to avoid the spate of abandoned projects as presented in appendix 4, 5 and 6. These agencies should be under first line charge directly from the Governor’s office, considering the importance of rural development to the overall national development. This fits into the transformational agenda of the state government and the Federal Government.
- A tripartite arrangement be made such that socio-economic development of rural areas become the responsibility of the Federal, state and local government, with support from benefiting communities such that the funding be made on the following ratios; Federal 10%, State 50%, local government 10% and the communities 10%. The community contribution can be in the form of labour and not necessarily cash. By so doing, the people are participating and become owners of these projects.
- There should be a comprehensive policy or road-map to rural development in the state with adequate budgetary allocations, rather than relying on paltry allocations to rural development related agencies during budgets. There should be an agency named Kaduna Rural Development Agency (PLARDA) to coordinate the activities of all rural development agencies using the road-map to rural transformation fashioned in the state. Also, zonal offices should monitor socio-economic development of rural areas/projects and lias with local governments and community based organizations in the areas of rural development in order to have a common direction in the pursuit of rural development.
- Policy makers should involve the beneficiaries of rural development right from the point of conception to implementation of projects. This will help reduce the vandalization of rural development projects such as the solar powered boreholes, and the misconception by rural dwellers that rural development projects are government projects rather than their projects.
- There should be an integrated approach to rural development where all sectors such as education, health care; housing, communication, security, agriculture and basic infrastructure services are provided to rural communities in the state. This integrated model with a bottom-up approach or demand driven model, where the people are the drivers of the programmes and not the government be adopted. This will make for a new paradigm shift in the approach to rural development in Kaduna. A paradigm shift is necessary inview of the failure of the present model of rural development discussed in our findings to this work.
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