Human Ecosystems: Introduction
The greater the combination, the greater the attraction. Thus Port Harcourt is the greatest magnet for settlement in the Delta.
16.4.2 THERE IS A GROWING HUMAN POPULATION AND EXPANDING SETTLEMENT
According to the 1991 census, Rivers State has a population of 3.98 million inhabitants and Delta State has 2.57 million. Rivers is slightly more urbanised than Delta, with 31 percent versus 25 percent of its population living in urban areas. Population growth rates in both states are estimated to be around 3 percent (ministry of Health, Rivers State, 1994). Since oil development began in the 1960s, immigration into the region has greatly increased........
The population densities for Rivers State and the former Bendel State are estimated to be 1.95 and 1.38 people/ha, respectively (Western Africa Department 1990, 116). However, state level data masks the very high population densities on habitable land in the riverine and coastal areas.'
Defining an Environmental Development Strategy for the Niger Delta: May 1995. Volume I - Industrial and Energy Operations Division West Central Africa Department of the World Bank.
16.4.3 ECONOMIC PRIORITIES ARE CHANGING
Traditional activities in terms of shifting agriculture, hunting, fishing, gathering, crafts and marketing remain very important, especially amongst women, and are likely to remain important for a long time to come. Nonetheless, there is a definite and urbanising tendency towards employment in the oil and gas industry, in other secondary industry and in services.
Moreover, as rural human populations increase there is a trend towards a more settled agriculture in terms of tree crops and rice, and in terms of agro-industrial activity.
The resource conflicts arising from agro-industrial projects as discussed in Chapter 10. are one of the manifestations of the changing economic priorities.
16.4.4 ADMINISTRATIVE PRIORITIES ARE CHANGING
Already, the three social indicators described above have created a society in which traditional systems of government have, to a large extent, been swept away.
In theory Nigeria is a Federal Republic where states have certain powers of government, which is supposed to come directly to the people through local government institutions. In practice, at least as far as the Niger Delta is concerned, Nigeria is a very centralised state, with state administrations operating as puppets of the central authority: Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States, for instance, at the time of writing, have military administrators. Even the previous apparently democratic civilian state governments were equally subject to central military dictate, as the events of 1993 showed. Local governments do not work effectively because even if they were not also subject to military control, they have neither the financial resources or the capacity to properly administer or develop their areas. The reason for this state of affairs in the Niger Delta is
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