Abstract
Development of the rural areas calls for the provision of basic infrastructure and social amenities with a view to enhancing the quality of life in the environments. Attainment of rural development, however, depends on pragmatic and conscientious planning, and the political-will to have the development plans was effectively implemented. The essentiality of these actions is highly reflected in the revolutionary transformation of China’s rural system, with the resultant rapid economic growth and poverty reduction in the country, put at 8–9% per annum. Nigeria though had transformation-oriented rural development programs that are similar to those of China, none of the programs had visible or sustainable impacts in the country’s rural life. A critical analysis of the causal failure of Nigeria’s rural development programs in relation to the recorded successes in China shows that implementations of Nigeria’s rural development programs veered from the locus of the political-will that forms the strength of the recorded successes by China. Rethinking the paradigm of rural development in Nigeria unequivocally calls for modeling the country’s rural program implementations alongside the strength of the political-will adopted by China for attainment of the much desired rural transformation and sustainable development in Nigeria.
Highlights
Rural areas remain a dominant landscape in most countries, given that the general populace heavily depends on the areas for food and economic development (International Fund for Agricultural Development [1])
While the transformation approaches by China have made the country become a formidable force in the global economy, Nigeria’s economy, especially the rural economy, has remained stunted owing to the ineptitude implementation of rural development programs in the country
Unlike the entrenched political-will and sense of commitment that brought about transformational development of the Chinese rural systems, the Nigerian efforts at rural development and economic transformation failed to see the light of the global economy largely due to poor leadership and governance, poorly developed and/or implemented economic policies, lack of innovative skills and creativity, and widespread corruption
Summary
Rural areas remain a dominant landscape in most countries, given that the general populace heavily depends on the areas for food and economic development (International Fund for Agricultural Development [1]). Rural development construes a distinct approach to improving the living condition or fostering the socio-economic change in rural areas [10, 11] It usually entails the creation of enabling environment such that residents of the areas could explore the environment for satisfaction of their basic needs of life, improve their economies and quality of life [12]. The bedrock to achieving this is the provision of functional infrastructure and social amenities like good roads, electric power supply, telecommunication network, pipe born water, and institutional support services for enhanced productivity and improved living conditions [13, 14]. Attainment of this fit depends on putting the right policies and institutes in place at both the national and international levels. A number of countries, with similar economic status with Nigeria many decades ago, the Asian and Pacific countries, had conscientiously embarked on agricultural development programs, before the turn of the twentyfirst century, as an approach to developing their rural system [16–20]
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