Full Length Research Paper

The challenges of rural industrialisation in Kwara State 1970 – 1985

Dr. E. O. Ibiloye

Department of History and International Studies, College of Humanities and Culture, Ikire, Osun State University, Osogbo.

E-mail: olaniyiibiloye@yahoo.com; Tel.: 08034206041

Accepted June 18, 2013

Abstract

Kwara State was one of the twelve states in Nigeria created by the military government of General Yakubu Gowon in 1967. As a result of neglect, majority of its rural population moved to urban centres in search economic fortunes. This was most intense in the Igbomina area of the state where migration was put at over 60% of the entire population in some cases. In consequence of this, a large number of Igbomina migrant community could be found in various parts of the southwest of Nigeria especially Lagos from as early as the last decade of the 19th century. Starting life from the humble position of hawkers, palm-wine tappers and canoe paddlers many Igbomina migrants succeeded in climbing to the peak of the socio-economic strata and became an epitome of what it takes to overcome social barrier in achieving economic ascendancy. An arm of the migrant’s business outfits in Lagos were established in the rural enclave of Kwara State in due reference to the home region Igbomina land. It is the challenges faced by these migrant entrepreneurs and spectacular social transformation of the homeland brought about by rural industrialization that is the focus of this paper. The far reaching socio-economic and political impact of rural industrialization on the location region and state at large was also a subject of discussion.

Keywords: Challenges, Rural, Industrialisation, Migration, Entrepreneur