As Enugu Focuses on Rural Development
…excessive disparity between inhabitants of rural areas in comparison to urban areas
Written by Dauda Suliyat Oluwafunmilayo
According to the World Bank, globally, over 50% of the population lives in urban areas today. By 2045, the world’s urban population will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion.
City leaders must move quickly to plan for growth and provide the basic services, infrastructure, and affordable housing their expanding populations need. Given the World Bank’s predicted statistics, Rural-urban development needs to be prioritized to achieve sustainable growth and reduce the influx of rural inhabitants to urban regions through rural-urban linkages.
Every year, rural-urban movements are increasing and the effects are worn like an old cloth. Unsurprisingly, in 2009, an estimated three million people were moving to urban areas across the world every week. And by the end of 2050, over 66 per cent of world inhabitants would have joined the fast-moving, populated cities of the world, all sauntering the major roads in search of survival.
This may be one of the major drivers of the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led administration in Enugu State whose focus on rural development since 2015 is striking. When the then brand new governor announced at his first inauguration in 2015 that he had sworn to his Creator that he would help develop the rural areas of Enugu State, many thought that it was the usual political talk.
However, five years of the determined development of Nsukka as the second major city in Enugu State has shown that it is not all talk. And this is important.
Since inception as a state, this heartland of Igboland has been a one-city state. With 17 local government areas in the state, only three of these LGAs are in urban areas, and Enugu, the Coal City, is where most rural folks wish to flock. Yet Enugu, and indeed the entire South East region, continues to lose some of its best young minds to the country’s commercial hubs, Lagos, and the administrative capital of Abuja.
Imo State has its Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu as major urban centres; Abia has its Aba and Umuahia; Anambra has Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka; and, Ebonyi has Abakaliki and Afikpo. Enugu State has only Enugu; so, it is about time for another real urban city to arise in the Igbo political capital. And Gov. Ugwuanyi’s determination to make that happen should be commended.
Therefore, this focus on rural development is a masterful plan, if well executed. And so far, the development of Nsukka seems to be progressing well. The state government announced its rural-urban development drive in a great way through the state infrastructure boost across the state with Nsukka as the poster town.
Geographically, Nsukka is located at the Northern boundary of southeastern Nigeria with a total land area of 3402 km 2. It is a flourishing region with a rich history and has 88 rural communities and the Nsukka urban center, which is referred to as the university town because of the presence of the University of Nigeria (UNN) presence.
Going forward, Nsukka is at the heart of a new developmental transformation currently championed by the massive infrastructural developments. There are numerous ongoing projects in Nsukka, from courthouses, roads, residential estates and intra-city layouts, that it is difficult to keep a true count on the number of government and private developers’ projects.
In addition, the cultural, socio and economic settings among the communities in Nsukka and how it has developed over the years through rural-urban linkages as well as strategically positioning the university at Nsukka has boosted development in the city over the years.
If Enugu state’s rural communities which are predominantly focused on Agriculture are allowed easily navigate the provision of their products and services, then it makes it easy for government and stakeholders draw up plans and develop strategic frameworks for the development and linkages of the rural communities to the urban towns by harnessing the power of the Agriculture sector in Nigeria.
Economically, food processing and milling are concentrated in Eha-Amufu and Adani due to its fertile plain lands for cultivating crops such as Rice, yam etc. and the government provides supports through projects like the Ada Rice production, Enugu state river project and United Palm produce.
Ummundu, a community in Nsukka focuses on smiting, wood carving, cashew nuts processing, and palm wine tapping which is almost at extinction in the community and can be saved through the development and execution of feasible policies which will involve transitioning from the traditional to more modern tools.
Enugu, the state capital has an ongoing struggle with shortage of water. Despite this huge discomfort faced by the nearly two million inhabitants in the state capital, thousands of rural citizens still emigrate into the state capital in search of better life.
Considering the infrastructure development in the state as of now, people and enterprises from the urban city of Enugu can easily commute with at the affordable rates e of #500 -#1000 to the rural areas around the state to easily access cheap raw materials and crops for personal or industrial use.
With the recent challenges posed by the ravaging COVID-19, Enugu and its neighbouring Ebonyi state are still at the forefront of infrastructural development in the South East Region. Recently, the state governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi led a group of government officials to commission several roads in Nsukka and other rural towns in state, dualizied all major roads leading in and out of the town with functional streets ands all aimed at growing the local economy. While this is currently changing the face of several rural areas in the state, it is expedient that new policies and initiatives are adopted by government officials at all levels to complement this massive infrastructural drive.
The world is at the point where urban populations are getting larger while the rural population keeps reeling from the loss of its working population, as majority of poor people continue to live in rural areas. The rural-urban threshold varies among countries at different times. Using population as a threshold, in Nigeria based on the 1953 census, any community inhabited by less than 5000 people were considered rural, but the 2006 census considers any community less than 20000 as rural.
In major cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, there are different people, some homeless, some jobless but energetic and willing to work, who are all new to the cosmopolitan life having migrated from rural areas in a bid to escape rural poverty.
To reduce this migration and low levels of rural poverty, some inhabitants in rural regions are diversifying their livelihood through agro-processing, manufacturing and services, but these are hindered with poor infrastructure, so many are still leaving these communities.
Some development economists, called Agrarians, have argued that agriculture is the key to transforming rural areas, while those called Industrialists argue that only by industrialization can the rural regions be developed.
The agrarians’ focus majorly on the agricultural sector ignoring the industrial sector and vice versa.
Still, for rural development to occur, there must exist a synergy between the two sectors (Agriculture and Industrial sector). The relationship between the two sectors is symbiotic, interdependent and complementary as industrialization will accelerate the growth of the agricultural sector, which will aid rural-urban development.
Basically, rural-urban linkages include the flow and interaction of people, information goods and services between the rural and urban areas. The rural area, which constitutes majorly primary production will depend on the urban and market and enterprise for efficient utilization of the produce.
Over the years, there has been numerous hindrances to rural-urban development and linkages in Nigeria, resulting in reduced road conditions/networks, high transport costs and poor investment in local market and production activities.
Thus, for rural-urban development to occur, policies should be strategically formulated across states and economic regions in the country, such as intensive investment in quality infrastructure, taking into consideration the dynamism of both regions through simultaneous and interdependence of agriculture and industrial sector, consequently mitigating rural-urban migration, poverty and income inequalities levels in the country.
The European Model
Motivation should be drawn from European Union’s vast experience in implementing rural development policies across its member states. The EU’s rural areas are diverse in nature, characterized by their specific natural environments and endowments. They provide among others, food and environmental resources that are crucial to the prosperity of both rural and urban areas, while their quality of life attributes is increasingly valued.
European union having foreseen the substantial source of employment, potential growth in rural areas overcame structural disadvantages as well as preserved the environmental quality of the regions, by contributing over €100billion ($112 billion) from its budget to support rural development policies over the period of 2014–2020.
According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, in recent years, there has been particular policy interest in analyzing the interactions between adjacent rural and urban areas, as rural areas in close proximity to urban areas are often dynamic local economies. By contrast, more remote, sparsely populated rural areas are generally characterized by weaker economic growth.
Globally, there are a number of real and perceived advantages which may attract people to live in (some) rural areas: lower housing and living costs, more space, a better social fabric, less pollution, closer proximity to nature, or a less stressful lifestyle. This ultimately led to EU’s rural development policy of 2014–2020 designed to help rural areas meet a wide range of economic, environmental and social challenges.
According to data from Eurostat, Lithuania was the only country where a majority (56.2 %) of the population live in rural areas, while 45–49 % of the total number of inhabitants live in rural areas in Denmark, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia and Luxembourg.
In 2015, almost one quarter (22.8 %) of the EU-28 population was living in a house in a rural area; for comparison, a slightly higher share (24.7 %) of the EU-28 population was living in a flat in a city. This shows that there is not excessive disparity between inhabitants of rural areas in comparison to urban areas due to the huge priorities placed on the development of rural regions with different countries having its dynamic rural development plans and strategies.
Conclusively, it is important for Rural-urban development to be a core priority to our government and should be a matter of intellectual discuss amongst policymakers, organizations, and stakeholders involved in development issues. Furthermore, private organizations could focus their corporate social responsibilities to the rural regions in the states, thus tackling the inherent problem of rural-urban development and translating to improved wellbeing, reduced inequality and eradication of poverty will thus help in achieving the SDGs, especially the Sustainable Development Goal 2, to End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition while promoting sustainable agriculture.
Originally published at http://discoverenugu042.wordpress.com on September 14, 2020.
