RAPID URBANIZATION AND THE NIGERIAN LANDSCAPE: THE GAINS, THE MENACES, AND STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE SUCCESS (original) (raw)
2024, Advances in Multidisciplinary and Scientific Research Journal Vol. 10. No. 2. Pp 153-.161 www.isteams.net/aimsjournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/V10N2P12
the quest for a better life, the desire to achieve a higher education, job stability, purchasing power, or simply tourism. With this move, cities, which may have begun as small compact units with just enough facilities to accommodate its pioneering dwellers begin to grow. This growth is called Urbanization, and it also occurs naturally through the increased births in the city. Believed to have begun in 4300-3100BCE in the Uruk period of ancient Mesopotamia when a certain "prosperous and efficient village attracted the attention of other less prosperous tribes who then attached themselves to the successful settlement" (Mark, 2014). Slowly but surely, this urbanization pattern has repeated itself in all nations around the globe further compounding the climate change crisis. Asia, which has 30% of the global land mass, and is home to nearly half the world's population, has urbanization traced to rural-urban migration inspired by administrative, commercial, and maritime cities which now have gained political significance. When analyzed individually, East and NorthEast Asia is rapidly urbanizing. SouthEast Asia features relatively high urbanization rates, South and SouthWest Asia are one of the least urbanized with high Urbanization rates centered in the oil-rich central Asian countries and very low in the "non-fossil-fuel-producing and less diversified economies, such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan." China, believed to have half of its population living in cities is hailed for its successful urbanization practice which was achieved by either limiting rural-urban migration or directing this movement away from the big cities towards growing or medium-sized ones, drastically limiting the number of slums. This urbanization has been experienced in every country, at different rates with an estimate showing that more than 50% of the world's population presently live in urban areas. Urbanization in Nigeria The urbanization in Nigeria is both rapid and continuing. 5 out of the 30 largest urbanized cities in Africa are in Nigeria, and her urban population is recorded to be growing at an alarming rate of 4.3 percent per annum, with an estimate that in 2037, her urban population would have doubled(URBANET, 2018). The main cause of urbanization in Nigeria can be summarized by the rural push and urban pull effect (Jedwab, Christiaensen, and Gindelsky, 2014). The rural-push effect refers to the unpleasant situations that make living in rural areas undesirable for Nigerians, and these include insecurity, rural poverty, lack of amenities and infrastructure, etc. The