The Relevance of Population Census to Economic Development of Rural Areas in Nigeria (a Case Study of Orumba North Local Government in Anambra State)
CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
As a researcher, I hope to study why people are having this problem of population in rural area. And if there will be possible way by which these condition can be drastically be reduced. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is fund out the relevance of population census to rural development and I can now narrow down the question to general and specific issues on what can be accomplished by the study. The purpose of my study is based on this: –
- Employment Situation: There should be industries, workshop should be organized and it effect by helping people to adjust to the rapid economic growth in the rural areas.
- Accurate and reliable census data, which is the major reason for population census.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
POPULATION ISSUES
The “population” assessment and census study represents the phase of the project because indication is that population of the rural areas in Nigeria has expanded in recent years.
Generally, majority of Nigerians live in rural areas with each settlement having 5,000 or less inhabitants. The population census of 1906 shows that 80% of Nigerians live such settlement Colatumbosu in 1975. An estimate of Nigerian rural population in 1985 was 70% of an estimate total national population approximately 100 million (World Bank, 1997:8). The same is true of social-economic opportunities and relevant to facilitate to the future development of employment, education in rural areas. (Mabogunyr, 1997, Raza, 1983, Stewart 1985) the rural areas are less favored.
The rural areas are generally deprived of the basic needs of life for the fact that population census provide the main planning.
The basic need of population date in rural areas for their life planning process include
- Employment situation
- Spatial distribution, data on socio-economic variables and horizon for self improvement.
Inaccurate and unreliable census data is a major reason why population data in the country are not given adequate consideration in development planning. Unrealizable census data can only produce an embarrassing result as in the case of national scheme of 1976, inflated figures such as those of early 1963 and also the rejected census of 1973 creates problem for planners. The weakness and low credibility as age structure, occupation and also the educational characteristics of data population are considered.
The most complete and reliable source of population census is statistics in general and demographic statistics in particular.
Also “Special survey, model population estimates or even supplementary data have to be use for the calculation of forecasting and planning co-efficiently within the educational system, e.g economic, demographic and social data so as to know the population of schools in the communities, age of children and qualification of their teachers.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (U.N.D.P) defined development in term of quality of life of the population especially the way economic growth of rural develop or change for which one approach or the other is adopted for improvement and transformation of the lot of the rural populace.
The U.N.D.P (United Nations Development Programme) says that the most complete and reliable source of population information is census.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Chukwuemeka (2002) defined research methodology as diligent inquiring aimed at experimenting and investigating of facts. It is a scientific survey that seeks, examines and analyses facts.
BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE STUDY
This study is aimed at finding out the relevance of population census to economic development of rural areas in Nigeria, a case study of Orumba North Local Government in Anambra State. This chapter seeks to describe the scientific, procedures and techniques employed in the process of executing the research project. This is necessary so that an interested reader will be able to understand the modalities used in arriving at the research findings.
CHAPTR FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of the data collected through questionnaire.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The detailed analysis of the data obtained and used in chapter four of this research work aimed mainly on the relevance of population census to economic development of rural areas. It is pertinent to note that population census involves people and their welfare and people’s welfare is a vital part of the economic system.
Furthermore, there are some isolated problems in this study such as inadequate facilities, inadequate planning, unskilled personnel, unreliable data, low educational background, unemployment etc.
In view of these problems, recommendations were made and conclusion was drawn.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In view of the problems observed and isolated in this study, the following recommendations are put forward to check future recurrence in the population census to economic development of rural areas and also be the whole country.
- Government should provide adequate and relevant statistics.
- Government should provide more relevant data, which form an objectives basis for the distribution of resources.
- Adequate facilities or social amenities should be provided for the rural areas to improve their economic development.
- Adequate planning should be imbibe.
- Employment should be provided for the people.
- Government should use skilled personnel in order to bring efficiency in the population census data.
CONCLUSION
Nigeria occupies total area of 765 square kilometers and is the most heavily populated country in Africa.
Nigeria’s population grew from about 16m in 1911 to about 56m in 1963 and 95m in 1991, at this moment there are several series of conflicting population estimates for Nigeria that one is not sure at all what the accurate figure should be, because there is lack of accurate and unreliable census data. The population of the country continues to soar high thereby causing very high demand in all the socio-economic facilities provided by the government.
Also, the demand on social facilities such as housing, school, hospitals and transportation is over starched to near suffocation. For instance in urban areas houses will become over crowded resulting in out break of epidemics since the space available would be too small to accommodate the learning population because of people in rural to urban centers thus shifting the attention of decision maker to cities in term of infrastructural provisions. The same thing applies to schools and hospitals.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In the course of writing this project the researcher encountered some difficulties such as time, finance. The researcher intended to research more in this topic but due to finance, the researcher was forced to limit the scope to questionnaire.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The researcher might intend to research on this topic to look into the relevance of population census to economic development so as to compare and contrast the level of impact of the two different variables. The researcher suggest that other people who may be interested in the same area of study in order to get more information for comparism should go to the areas which the researcher could not go into due to limitation such as time and money.
REFERENCES
- Agalamanyi, C.U. (2003): Population Information and Management. Nsukka: Sub. Department of Public Administration, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
- Akinoha, S.R. (1990): The Essential of Physical Planning in Model Village and Rural Development. Ile-Ife: Press Publishers Ile-Ife. Osun State.
- Chikelu, O. (2001): Strands in Nigeria Development Administration, Nsukka: Press Publishers Nsukka.
- Edeialor, P.A. (1998): The use of Census data in Development Planning. Nigeria: Annual Conference of Population Association of Nigeria.
- Fabian, O. (2003): Education Employment and Human Resources Development. Nsukka: Local Government Department of University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
- Olubodun, etal. (1991): Geo-reference information system, Queries for Population Data Analysis and Management: Nigeria. Press Publishers.
