Resettlement adjustment patterns to rural development programs: The case of Tiga dam in Kano State of Nigeria
Resettlement adjustment patterns to rural development programs: The case of Tiga dam in Kano State of Nigeria
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Date
1980
Authors
Voh, Jacob Padeino
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Abstract
In Nigeria, the government is the major initiator of
projects to improve the economy and of efforts to reform or
modernize the society. These projects consequently are designed
with little or no consultation with the people who are
to be affected by them. One of such projects, the subject of
this thesis, is the construction of Tiga dam in Kano State
which resulted in the relocation of about 12,000 people. In
the thesis, relocation of rural people (resettlement) is conceived
of as a development project and a perspective was developed
that rural communities undergoing compulsory resettlement
respond in the same general fashion irrespective of their
sociocultural background and of the policy of resettlement
authorities. This theoretical framework includes problems of
socioeconomic adjustment, perception of the conditions and
opportunities created by the project and factors affecting the
displaced persons' responses to a development project.
Data were obtained by means of personal interviews with
344 household heads selected at random in four new villages.
Percentages are employed to report certain aspects of the
study. Gamma (y) as a measure of association of ordinal data
is used to analyze some relationships while Pearson correlations
and multiple regression procedures are used to analyze
interval level measures.
Problems of socioeconomic adjustment were found to be
those that concern the social and economic well-being of the
relocatees—farmland, housing, water supplies and so on. It
also was found that, in general, the affected persons viewed
the various conditions and opportunities created by the
project as having beneficial effects.
It was found that same variables tended to affect perceptions
of the conditions and opportunities created by the project
and apprehension of new communities. Size of farm and
involvement in project activities in particular were found to
be important determinants of perception of the conditions and
opportunities created by the project and apprehension of new
communities.
Size of farm, length of awareness of inundation, knowledge
of agencies and their roles, length of residence on the project,
involvement in project activities and vested interests
served by the project were found to be positively and significantly
related to attitudes toward the project. The variables
in the model explained about 44% of the variation in
attitudes toward the project. However, involvement in project
activities, length of residence on the project and size of
farm operated by the relocatee, together, explained more of
the variation in attitudes toward the project.
The implications of the study for sociological theory,
research and planning applications are discussed.
Description
A Dissertation Submitted to the
Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY.
Keywords
Resettlement,, adjustment,, patterns,, rural development programs,, case,, Tiga dam,, Kano State,, Nigeria