Settler- Indigene Relations in Nigeria, 1920- 2014 (Published)
This study highlights the interaction between settler migrant farmers and their host societies in the Western cocoa producing areas and some food producing areas of central part of Nigeria between the 1920s and 2014. The choice of date is informed by the time of the introduction of commercial cocoa production in Western Nigeria while 2014 is the year in which the dislocation of the peace in the food producing area, occasioned by the Chibok girls kidnap saga began. Using extant literature and field data in the study areas, the paper asserts that contrary to popular generalisations in some literature that ethnicity, economic interest, cultural and religious differences have engendered conflicts among indigene-settler relations, the people in our study area have coexisted peacefully. The paper examined the geo-economic imbalance in the distribution of resources which necessitated migration; the common need for capital formation to exploit the resources; use of non-economic methods like kinship ties, ethnic affiliations, and some customary obligations have remained important indicators in the rural social and economic life. It is the observation of this paper that the rural farming societies of our investigation, though an agglomeration of different ethnic nationalities, yet maintained a symbiotic economic and social cooperation in a system-devised method of absorbing the shocks and sometimes strained relationship among them, in a participatory way.
Keywords: Farmers, Indigene, Labour, Migration, Rural, Settler
The Building Industry in the Housing Programme: Technology, Materials and Labour Towards Adressing Housing Shortage in Nigeria (Published)
The building industry is a sector of national economy engaged in preparation of land and construction, alteration, and repair of buildings, structures, and other real property. More agents, institutions and intermediaries have become involved in the various stages of housing construction as a means of producing more housing for human shelter. Building Industry work involves the construction of a new or existing commercial, industrial or domestic buildings or structure. The major form of urban land use is housing construction, and also the pattern of urban land use largely determines the pattern of urban growth and development. (Agbola, 2002). However, this paper examined the essential link between the building industry, technology, materials and labour in relations to housing programme. And its goal is to critically examine the roles of building industry in the housing programme since housing programme as immensely contributed to the development of building construction industry in Nigeria. The paper shows some of the functions of building industry in housing programme, the materials to be use , technology employed and the labour used in the construction process and highlights the need for government to encourage both the private and public building industry to provide quality and affordable housing for human consumption as this will be part of the housing programme organized to alleviate the problem of inadequate housing in most developing countries.
Keywords: Building Industry, Housing Programme, Housing Shortage, Labour, Materials, Technology