The Case of Aba and its region; Southeastern Nigeria

This report presents the findings of a study of the interactions and linkages between the urban centre of Aba in Abia State (south-eastern Nigeria) and five peri-urban and rural towns and villages in the same state. The basic proposition underlying this study is that rural and urban areas are interdependent localities characterised by exchanges of people, ideas, goods and services, to support livelihoods, rather than two separate and isolated socio-economic entities. While rural-urban interactions are not a new phenomenon, researchers and policy makers have often treated rural and urban areas, and their residents, as distinct from each other with unique problems that should be studied and solved separately. Such an approach overlooks the fact that what happens to the people in the rural areas affects the city dwellers, and vice versa. It also neglects the fact that the livelihoods of different groups are not affected by artificial rural or urban boundaries. The problems faced and the strategies formulated by people vary instead according to economic, socio-cultural and ecological factors. Such strategies are also affected by macro policies like economic reform and globalisation, which, among other effects (see e.g. Okali et al., 1997; Kalu, 2000), have often increased the cost of production inputs for small-scale producers without a corresponding increase in profits.