The Need for Citizen Participation in the Resettlement of Rural Populations Displaced by Urbanization Schemes

In the history of the evolution of Nigeria, rural populations and the urban poor have had to be displaced to new resettlement sites to make way for better planning and for other developments like urban infrastructure water schemes, power plants, etc.-and the development of new towns and cities like Abuja, where an entire rural population was displaced. The Kaduna Refinery and the Steel Plant and Town at Ajaokuta offer us examples where rural populations were displaced for industrial development purposes. Socio-political and ecological factors, including natural disasters, have also led to the displacement of entire rural populations. Resettlement programmes are usually accompanied with unnecessary frustrations experienced by the displaced rural populations. This paper argued that the adoption of proper planning and well articulated implementation strategies should seek involvement of would-be displaced rural populations in shaping their destinies. The paper was premised on the concept that the building is a true expression of the family’s identity. It also acknowledged the argument that on planning and site layout, the old villages may be sprawling, dirty and overcrowded to such an extent that the outside observer sees little more than chaos, but that they are often delicate and sensitive expressions of social organisation: ties of kinship and barriers of hostility expressed geographically and structurally. The conclusion is drawn that if the aspiration of the rural man is to be accounted for, the resettlement of displaced rural communities should not be misconstrued as an opportunity to urbanize them.