Demographic Transition and Rural Development in Nigeria

Abstract

The discourse on population growth has generally given a picture that the increase in the population of any

society will negatively affect the utilisation of resources and ultimately overall development. A school of thought

gave the impression that the more the population increases, the greater is the poverty, leading to

underdevelopment, especially for countries in transition. This argument led to various suggestions and attempts

at population control and huge budgetary spending, neglecting positive aspects of population size, particularly in

the period of demographic transition, and stressing that growth in population size, especially at certain periods,

could not lead to and promote development. But can population growth not be a blessing to growth, especially

for the rural areas? This paper was anchored in demographic dividend and labour force models. Utilising some

theoretical expositions and drawing from the lessons of countries that have transformed from underdevelopment

to developed nations, the paper argued that demographic dividend can be harnessed for the development of

especially rural areas in transitional countries like Nigeria. The paper concluded with the submission that, in

order to tackle the pervasive poverty in Nigeria, disjointed and inconsistent rural development policies should be

jettisoned and the utilization of rural population for the supply of economic goods and services for the overall

development of the country embraced.

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