THE EFFECT OF COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of The Study
Not until recently, a lot of social developments in Nigeria were directed towards people in the urban areas while those in the rural areas that make up the bulk of the population were relatively neglected. Although the necessary materials for the development of these rural areas abound; naturally within their immediate environment, their lack of awareness and participation tend to impede community development.
The problem of social and political integration is, perhaps, one of the most intriguing to people of a developing society like Nigeria. No nation can achieve its goal of development without conscious efforts at integrating its people and mobilizing them to understand, appreciate and identify with the ideals of development. For a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse nation like Nigeria with very high level of illiteracy and unemployment, the need for public enlightenment and social mobilization is imperative.
Basic to any developmental process is man’s desire for a better life
and better environment. But development, as stated in the 4th National Development Plan, “does not start with goods and things; it starts with people; their orientation, organization and discipline (4th National Dev. Plan”). When a society is properly oriented, organized and disciplined, it can be prosperous in natural wealth.
Casting our minds back to 1970s, particularly between 1972 and 1976, when there was the oil boom, many Nigerians neglected the rural areas and fled to the urban centers, neglected agriculture and developed greater interest in white-collar jobs. Nigerians also abandoned productive activities, shunned locally produced materials and became foreign manufacturers’ representatives. There was widespread development of Western taste, for imported materials and soon, the country became a nation of contractors with a generation of nouveau riche. This could not last for too long. The period gave Nigerians false hopes about their country’s industrial production capacity and agricultural output. The economy was trapped in oil glut which brought about hardship to the citizenry.
In 1977, General Olusegun Obasanjo, the Head of the Federal Military Government launched Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) aimed at re-orientating the nation and focusing attention on agriculture. But the implementation was soon derailed and the objectives could not be realized. But in 1979, when the civilian took over power, massive importation of food began even beyond the country’s foreign exchange capacity with the attendant consequence of increasing neglect of agricultural production and the rural economy. This neglect had reached lamentable proportions by the time the Buhari Administration assumed national leadership in 1985.
In spite of the oil boom, the condition of the rural people never changed. They had few good roads, lacked portable water, and were exposed to various types of diseases. This greatly reduced the average Nigerian morale and capacity for hardwork. Although demoralized, Babangida Administration accepted the predicament of the times with stoic equanimity. It is in recognition of the failure of such programmes of the OFN and the Green Revolution launched by the civilian regime of Shehu Shagari that the Babangida Administration in February 1986 established the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI).
