CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
To a large extent, migration is a natural phenomenon. This is because wild animals and birds migrate, that is moving from one geographical area to another at certain periods of the year. The migration of weaver birds is common in Nigeria.
Migration is usually concerned with a permanent change of home, but it can also apply to temporary movements such as those of nomads. Migration is sometimes used to include all types of movements as those of seasonal workers, tourists etc. The migration of farmers from over crowded or unproductive areas to areas where land is under utilized is an important aspect of rural economic development. Today, man is living in a more settled life although the process of migration has not stopped. What has changed is rather the pattern of migration.
The two (2) types of migration are observable in the modern world. They are: International migration which involves movement of people beyond the boundaries of many nations and Internal migration involving the movement of people within the territorial boundaries of a particular country. Whether international or internal; migration is all about the movement of people from one geographical area to another, which may be induced by social or economic factors. This migration could be the movement of people from one region to another within the same country, or the movement of people from the rural area to the urban centers, but also within the same country. The later is the subject of this paper research work.
Rural-urban migration means the movement of people from rural population to the urban centre within a national boundary. Almost all developing countries that have been concerned with the size and growth of their urban population believe that internal (rural-urban) Migration has been the prominent factor contributing to urban growth. Although high population growth is a serious problem in most developing countries, internal migration puts even greater strain on cities. Because of lack of data on migration in many developing countries, the difference between the urban growth rate and the natural (total population) growth rate is used as a rough measure of migration.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Abia state was carried out of the former Imo state in 1991. The name “Abia state” is an abbreviation if four of the state’s densely populated regions, Abia, Bende, Isuikwu- ato and Afikpo of which Afikpe later was carried out to form the present day Ebonyi state.
The present day Bende L.G.A which forms the background of this research work, was formally called old Bend whose administrative and geo-political area stretched at that time from Arochukwu to umuahia and included such towns as ututu, Ikechiowa, ohafia, Abiriba, Nkporo, Abam Umuhu, Bende, Igbere,Item, alayi, ozu Item, Isukwuato, uzuakoli, Nkpa, Uuahia and Ikwuano with a population of 3 million people.
Citizens from old Bende LGA listed above are simply referred to an “ Benda people”. The term Bende is in honour of a town called “Bende” LGA area of governance.
Even today, the Bende town is still the administrative seat of Bende in the present day Abia state local government areas structure.
Bende today has been restructured to include towns namely:Nkpa, Nkpokpa, Amaohoro, Eluama, Agbaiyi, Umuede, umuewu ugwu, Oblaji, Okpobia, Alayi, Item, Okporoenyi, Ugwieke, Eziukwu, igbere and odua with the total population of about 128,227 based in 2006 population census. Bende is predominantly made up of farmers and local traders. Bende is blessed with so many natural resources like salt, gold, phosphate, laterite gravel and lime stone. It is also one of the three (3) agricultural backbone of abia state. The people cultivate yam, cassava, cocoyam and harvest large palm oil plantation for commercial and personal consumption which was formerly the heavy earners for the people in the LGA before the oil boom and has been neglected.
Bende people are known for their brave ring and self-reliance. They showed a lot of these great traits in the was of survival during the Nigerian Biafra war which was greeted and celebrated with the famous Bende war dance which is very unique and popular.
Bende today, despite producing top men like Dr. Orji Uzor kalu, former governor of Abia state 1999-2007, ace actor Mr. James Iroha a.k.a Gringory Akabuogu of new masquerade e cast, Chinedu ikedieze a.k.a Aki, okechukwu Edward Ukeje also known as Mr. Raw and host of other top educational and intellectual figure plus politicians, they are still suffering from mismanagement.
- STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The increasing rate of rural- urban migration in the third world is often seen as a source of both social and economic problems. Evidence shows that rural workers migrate to the cities even if they are unlikely to find jobs, provided that they expect to hit the jackpot eventually by obtaining high wage sector employment. Migrants are attracted to cities, not because they are assured of an increase in wages, but because they gamble on being absorbed in high wage and are willing to be unemployed or accept very low wages in the urban labour market for a period of time in the expectation of achieving a high lifetime income.
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