Rural-Urban Migration in Nigeria, Implication on the Development of the Society: Anambra State as the Focus of the Study

Abstract

This paper examines the implication of rural- urban migration on Nigeria Society using Anambra state as focus of the study. Cities have been growing both through natural increase and through stampede from rural areas in Nigeria. People migrate to urban areas based on the prevailing conditions they fund themselves and the reasons for the migration vary from one individual to another depending on the situation that informs the decision to migrate. In most rural areas, the effect of rural-urban migration was a rapid deterioration of the rural economy leading to poverty and food scarcity. The cause of the phenomenon has been described as the push factors in the rural areas and the pull factors in the urban areas. The objective of this paper is to identify the implication of rural-urban migration on Nigeria society. It is a survey research. Thus, 1200 questionnaire were distributed among the selected local governments in Anambra State. The analysis was run using Runs test and mode analysis. The result of the analysis found the effect of people migrating from rural areas to urban centres on the society to include: increase in prostitution in the urban centres; increase in squalor settlement in the urban centres; and people are doing all sorts of odd jobs in order to survive in urban centres. The paper therefore recommends that the government should make and implement a policy on provision of functional social amenities such as electricity, pipe borne water etc. in the rural areas. Good schools and qualified teachers should be made available in the rural areas and establishment of industries in both rural and urban areas that will to an extent accommodate unemployed youths.