CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
In Nigeria, the rural
areas are not progressing in line with urban areas or metropolitan states in
term having sustainable development like good road, electricity, good
telecommunication, transportation, good water supply, standard market and
health centres, improved housing as well as improved agricultural and storage
facilities that would help in sustaining the rural masses. McKnight (1995)
defined the term rural development as the overall development of rural areas to
improve the quality of life of the rural people.
According to Ihumodu
(2003), rural development is the process of economic and social progress aimed
at eradicating poverty among rural populace through provision of life and
satisfying the basic needs of the people. Eradicating poverty among rural
people demands appropriate skill. Rural people are endowed with quantum of
knowledge and traditional skills, but at their primitive levels, that needs
development to fit in properly with the modern trends of thing (Stall & Stoecker,
1998). This can be achieved through capacity building programmes. Capacity
building is the process of developing skill, ability and faculties individually
and collectively, that is vital in comprehending rural development and its
roles in ameliorating rural poverty, ignorance, low human skill and literacy
(Castelloe, 2002). All these are done to sustain the development of rural
setting. Sustainable development vector (i.e. elements of desirable social
objectives or attributes which societies seek to achieve through conserving
natural resources (Pearce & Barbier, 1999).
Most rural societies
are not able to achieve development because they lack the basic resources that
would bring development or they are not able to harness and utilize the existing resources that would enable them develop their society
(Robinovitch, 1994). In Nigeria, this has been serious social issue in recent
time.
Socioeconomically,
infrastructure and basic amenities like good road, portable water supply,
electricity, health centres, markets, transportation, telecommunication, sports
centers etc. affect development. This is true because, when all these essential
things are lacking, development can hardly come or occur. Other important
factors are illiteracy, ignorance and poverty. On the other hand, government
neglect can also affect developmental process that will take place in the rural
areas.
Culturally, belief
system of the rural people bridge development, for example, they find it
difficult to release a particular land for development due to the belief that
it is on that land sacrifices are being made for the gods of their land,
secondly they find it difficult to release a particular land for development to
avoid the destruction of their aesthetic values like trees and other things
that bring about the beauty of their area. Another cultural factor is on land
tenure system (ownership of land). This implies that some land owners in the
rural areas do not like releasing or letting go of their land for building of
factories, schools, market, churches, health centres etc. by the government or
even private individuals who are capable of doing so. By so doing, development
is swept under the carpet. Fear of terror and labelling are another vital
cultural factor which affect development, for example, an individual who is
financially capable can withdraw his intention to develop a particular rural
area due to the fear of getting him killed by armed robber and evil men or
being labelled a fraudster and also a ritualist.
Rural development is a
multidimensional and comprehensive concept; it encompasses the development of
agriculture and allied activities, village and cottage industries and crafts,
socio-economic infrastructure, community services and facilities and above all,
human resources in rural areas. As a phenomenon, rural
development is the end result of interactions between various physical,
technological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional factors (Isife,
1998). According to Igbokwe (2000), rural development is a strategy designed to
improve the economic and social wellbeing of a specific group of people, i.e.,
the rural poor.
As a discipline, it is
multi- disciplinary in nature, representing an intersection of agriculture,
social, behavioural, engineering and management sciences (Kata Singh, 1999).
Problems of rural areas could come as a result of the already stated factors,
most importantly, on the area of deliberate neglect of the rural areas by the
government. According to Prelleltensky (2004), rural development problems come
as a result of governmental deliberate neglect or inability of the rural
community to welcome development due to their cultural belief system etc.
According to rural development strategies 2002, through rural development
strategies, efforts of the people and that of the government are brought
together to improve the economic social and cultural conditions of the rural
areas, so as to integrate them into the life of the nation and allow them to
enable their people contribute more to national growth. Falcoya, (1984) on the
other hand stated that rural development strategies created an avenue for rural
people to organize themselves for aplanning actions, define their common
individual plans to meet the needs of the community and solve their problems,
execute these plans with maximum reliance upon community resources and
supplement these resources when necessary with services and materials from
government and non-governmental agencies outside their communities.
In addition, the issues
concerning rural development should be government involved as well as rural
dwellers involved so as to achieve a better solution to rural problems. That is
to say that in order to achieve a better rural development in Ideato LGA,
government and the rural people should integrate their efforts together. The
study therefore tries looking into the socio-economic and
cultural factors militating against development in Ideato Local Government Area
of Imo State.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
The issue of rural
development is very challenging, considering that more than 70 percent of the
population live in the rural areas, where they cultivate the soil to make a
living. Looking at this poverty level it therefore becomes a social problem
that demands urgent solution. One major factor affecting rural development is
government neglect or government not showing concern towards rural development.
According to Nwankpa (2001), government should play pivotal role to making sure
that development occur in the rural setting. Another important factor is on
lack of basic infrastructure and basic amenities needed for development such as
transportation, good roads, electricity, good school, portable water, health
centres, markets, telecommunication, churches, recreational centres etc. When
all these infrastructures and basic amenities are not available in a particular
rural area, development finds it difficult to occur. Illiteracy, ignorance, and
poverty serve as another important factor militating against rural development
in Ideato rural community, Illiteracy, poverty and ignorance make or flop the
developmental process in the rural areas, so making them to move backward
(Edeh, 2003). Rural dispute is another factor militating against rural
development. This implies that when dispute comes between two communities due
to land, government who has planned bringing development can decide to withdraw
it till the dispute or conflict is settled. Land tenure system as well as
inability of the rural people to harnessing the available resources contributes
to the backwardness of the rural areas, especially rural, Ideato.
Furthermore, cultural
beliefs of the people in the rural areas affect the development that will come
therein, for example some rural areas always find it difficult to give
government land for development due to the fact that the land is where
sacrifices are mad for the gods of their land. Another fear
they have is the destruction of their aesthetic values by the government while
the development projects are going on. Some individuals due to their selfish
interest, find it difficult to dispose their land to the government for them to
build structures like hospitals, schools, churches, recreational centres etc.
According to Iyiogwe (2005), in his work on economic theory says land is free
gift of nature, such as land surface, soil, rivers, mountains, forest, mineral
deposits etc. Okorji (2005) restated that land is therefore nature's aid to
production. Another cultural factor is the fear of terror and labelling. some
private individuals avoid helping people in some developmental structures in
the rural area in order not to get them killed or labelled as criminals,
fraudsters or as ritualists by the rural people.
More so, the problem of
gender segregation is another crucial factor to be considered while discussing
on the cultural factor militating against rural development. The reason is that
sometimes women in the rural areas are not allowed to contribute in the issues
concerning rural or community development. By so doing, the ideas of
development becomes one sided which in turn affects the developmental
processes. Women should be allowed to contribute in the developmental issues,
whether political, economic, social and cultural. (Egbule, 2006)
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