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Nigeria Rural-Urban Linkages
Cities in Nigeria, as elsewhere, have historically
exerted
potent influences on the countryside. The northern
city-states
played a major role in the distribution of human
population and
economic activity throughout the savanna region. As
citadels and
centers of power and conquest, they caused depopulation in
some
regions, notably those subject to conquest and raiding,
and
population concentration in other areas. The low
populations of
the middle belt savanna probably resulted from the raiding
and
the conquests of the Hausa and Fulani city-states. The
subsequent
regrowth of bush land is thought to have led to a
resurgence of
tsetse flies and other disease vectors, which inhibited
attempts
to repopulate the region. The complementary effect was to
increase population in zones of relative security, either
areas
under the protection of the dominant political states or
areas of
refuge, such as hill masses, which were difficult for
armed
horsemen to conquer.
The areas under the control or influence of major
city-states
would have been economically oriented toward those
centers, both
through the coercive exaction of taxes or tribute and
through the
production of food and manufactured products for the court
and
urban population. Many of these economic factors were
replicated
in the modern experience of urbanization, although one
major
change, dating from the imposition of British colonialism
in the
north, was the removal of the insecurity caused by warring
polities.
Although there are similarities to this northern
savanna
pattern in the historical impact of Yoruba urbanization,
the very
different nature of the Yoruba cities led to a distinctive
pattern of rural interaction. Yoruba cities traditionally
had
attached to them satellite villages or hamlets, the
inhabitants
of which considered themselves as belonging to that city,
although most of their lives were spent outside the cities
and
their livelihoods derived from farming or other rural
activities.
The resulting close connection between urban dwellers and
the
surrounding farmers, indeed the fact that they were often
identical in that urban dwellers also had farms in which
they
lived for much of the year, was noted by early European
travelers
to Yorubaland. Even in 1990, many Yoruba urban dwellers
owned
farms within a reasonable distance from the city and
worked them
regularly. Moreover, many villagers owned houses, rooms,
or
partly completed structures in nearby towns or cities and
divided
their time, investments, and activities between urban and
rural
settings. Thus, the traditional pattern of urban-rural
interconnections continued to be a deeply rooted facet of
Yoruba
culture.
Among the most important interactions between rural and
urban
areas through the 1980s in Nigeria and most other parts of
Africa
were the demographic impacts of urban migration on rural
areas.
Because the great majority of migrants were men of working
age,
the rural areas from which they came were left with a
demographically unbalanced population of women, younger
children,
and older people. This phenomenon was not new to Nigeria
and had
been evident in parts of the country since long before
independence. The 1953 census showed that the crowded
rural
regions of Igboland, among other areas, had already
experienced a
substantial migration of men, leaving a large
preponderance of
women in the prime working ages. In what is today Imo
State, for
example, the sex ratio (i.e., the ratio of men to women,
multiplied by 100) for the zero to fourteen age-group in
1953 was
100.2, but for ages fifteen to forty-nine, it fell to
79.1,
indicating a large surplus of females. Many of the male
Igbo
migrants left to work in the cities of the north and
southwest.
Although the civil war subsequently caused many Igbos to
return
to the southeast, the overall scale and geographic extent
of
rural-urban migration in the country had increased
steadily after
the war. Migration was strongly stimulated by the oil boom
of the
1970s, with all of the opportunities that era brought for
making
one's fortune in cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, and
Warri,
as well as others that were indirectly affected by the oil
economy. Since then, migration has waxed and waned with
the state
of the economy. In the late 1980s, many young people were
compelled by the sharp downturn of the economy and the
shortage
of urban employment to return to their home villages. As a
longer-term phenomenon, however, migration from the rural
areas,
especially by young men, was expected to be an
accelerating and
largely irreversible social process.
This process affected the rural economy in the areas of
migration by creating marked changes in the gender
division of
labor. In most of Africa, agricultural labor was
traditionally
specified by gender: men had certain tasks and women had
others,
although the specific divisions varied by culture and
ethnic
group. As working-age men left the rural areas, the
resulting
labor gap was met by others, usually wives or children, or
by
hired labor--or the tasks were modified or not performed.
The
departure of men helped to generate a lively market for
rural
wage labor. In many areas in 1990, male and female
laborers were
commonly hired to perform agricultural tasks such as land
preparation, weeding, and harvesting, which in the past
were done
either by household labor or traditional work parties. In
turn,
the growth in demand for hired labor fostered an increase
of
seasonal and longer term intrarural migration. The
improvement of
roads was also extremely important in stimulating the
scale of
seasonal labor migration. It became feasible, for example,
for
Hausa and other northern workers to come south to work as
hired
laborers in the cocoa belt and elsewhere at the onset of
the
rains and later return to their home villages in time to
plant
their own crops.
In more remote areas, however, finding hired workers
was
often difficult. The absence of men led to neglect of such
tasks
as land clearing and heavy soil conservation work, which
they
generally performed. Thus, in forest areas from which
there was
much male migration, thickly overgrown land that had been
left
fallow for extended periods would not be cleared for
cultivation;
instead, the same parcels were used repeatedly, leading to
rapid
declines in soil fertility and yields. As a result, land
degradation also occurred in these low density areas.
Some of the most profound impacts of urban areas on the
rural
economy derived from the vast increase in food demand
generated
by the growth of cities. Both the amounts and types of
foods
consumed by urban populations helped to transform
agricultural
systems and practices. Cassava, corn, and fresh vegetable
production especially benefited from the expansion of
urban
demand. Cassava tubers can be processed by fermenting,
grating,
and drying to produce a powdered product known as
gari,
which can be stored and is very suitable for cooking in
urban
settings. Especially throughout the southern parts of the
country, gari demand grew rapidly with the
expansion of
urban populations, causing a large increase in cassava
planting
and processing, largely done by women as a cottage
industry.
Demand for and production of corn also increased
significantly.
In the early portion of the harvest season, fresh corn
sold as
roadside "fast food" became a highly profitable endeavor,
especially in cities. Throughout the northern areas of the
country, corn production for dried grain--most of which
was grown
for sale to urban areas--also expanded rapidly through the
1980s,
supplementing or replacing some of the traditional sorghum
and
millet production. The expansion of commercial chicken and
egg
production, also largely for the urban market, further
raised
demand for corn as feed.
The expansion and improvement of the transport network
in the
1970s and 1980s played a key role in tying urban markets
to rural
producing regions. This linkage was most critical for
fresh
vegetable production, which previously was very limited in
geographical extent but became feasible and profitable in
many
areas once efficient transport connections to urban areas
were
established. The continued growth of urbanization and
expansion
of transport capacity were likely to be the major driving
forces
of agricultural production and modernization through the
1990s.
Data as of June 1991
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