1. Introduction

Generally speaking, infrastructure is essential for the sustainability of human settlement. Today, it is no longer arguable that the imbalances in the provision of rural infrastructure when compared with that of the cities have negatively impacted cities’ sustainability. In fact, the rural-urban imbalance in development provides an explanation for the unprecedented growth of urban centers and slums[1]. Therefore improving accessibility to basic services such as safe water, electricity, sanitation, and social infrastructural facilities for residents has been acknowledged as one of the principal ways of promoting sound human settlements, good health, and appropriate and decent living conditions[2], little wonder why many people today migrate to the cities as a result of the attractions of the infrastructure elements that are found there.

Urban people are perceived to be ‘better-dressed, better- fed and better-exposed to modern civilization than rural people’. Many recognized the importance of the population characteristics in defining an urban place. They described an urban area as a place with high population density, composed of people from different ethnic groups[3]. Urban people are able to gain current information and have greater access to the government. Infrastructure in cities is seen as those basic facilities, structures and services that serve as a back bone for the development and economic wellbeing of cities.

Migration is one of the most crucial phenomena which shape not only the structure of an area’s population but the spatial pattern and dynamics of areas settlement, likewise in rural settlement; it produces changes in both the sources and destination areas.

The impact of migration on the spatial pattern and number of settlements is always in two forms of expansion or contraction of population. It then simply means that, if the destination areas absorb large influx of people, the settlement will expand in size and density of population. On the other hand, the source areas of the migrant will experience a decrease in population size and a decline in density. In rural-urban migration, a situation that seems to be on a continuous growth range, has resulted to the over population and urbanization of the cities and urban centers and this situation definitely brings about decay and dilapidation of the cities. With this, the development of the rural areas in turn now poses great challenges to economic and socio-cultural lives of the populace as well as the activities in rural areas.

For many years, rural-urban migration was viewed favourably in economic development as a result of industrialization. Internal migration was thought to be a natural process in which surplus labour was gradually withdrawn from the rural sector to provide needed manpower for urban industrial growth process. However,[4] researched on Indian experience made it clear that rates of rural-urban migration greatly exceeded rates of urban job creation and swamped the absorptive capacity of both the formal sector industry and urban social services.

Today, migration has become a major factor contributing to excess labour force in the urban centers, which has continued to increase the rate of unemployment and other social challenges caused by the imbalances between rural-urban environments.

When an area gets more populated, its infrastructure bumps up against its carrying capacity. For instance, roads no longer satisfy the demands of a growing population, and then farmlands and forests are sacrificed to strip malls and housing developments.

1.1. Rural Conditions / Rural Development

Among the most important interactions between rural and urban areas through the 1980s in Nigeria for instance and most other parts of Africa were the demographic impacts of urban migration on rural areas. Because the great majority of migrants were men of working age, the rural areas from which they came were left with a demographically unbalanced population of women, younger children, and older people. This phenomenon was not new to Nigeria and had been evident in parts of the country since long before independence. The 1953 census showed that the crowded rural regions of Igbo land, among other areas, had already experienced a substantial migration of men, leaving a large preponderance of women in the prime working ages. In what is today Imo State, for example, the sex ratio (i.e., the ratio of men to women, multiplied by 100) for the zero to fourteen age-group in 1953 was 100.2, but for ages fifteen to forty-nine, it fell to 79.1, indicating a large surplus of females. Many of the male Igbo migrants left to work in the cities. Although the civil war subsequently caused many Igbos to return to the southeast, the overall scale and geographic extent of rural-urban migration in the country had increased steadily after the war. Migration was strongly stimulated by the oil boom of the 1970s, with all of the opportunities that era brought for making one's fortune in cities. Since then, migration has waxed and waned with the state of the economy[5].

Table 1. Massive Exodus from Some Selected Rural Areas of South-Eastern Nigeria[35] Rural Area Area [Sq.km] 1991 Population Census 2006 Population Census Percentage Decrease Isu-Uzo 889.62 197.395 148.597 24.72% Nkwerre 38.45 126.030 80.270 36.30% oyi 138.02 204.041 168.201 17.56% Obi Ngwa 398.51 324.972 181.439 44.17%

Infrastructure has the power to determine the quality of life for resident of an area. The neglect to rural infrastructure development is the major cause of rural -urban migration. From the table above, about 44.17% of people in Obi Ngwa migrated to some other environment they feel is better than that rural area that still lacks basic infrastructure. From the selected rural areas in South-East Nigeria, the rate of migration is increasingly alarming calling for attention.

In reality, however, drawing a precise line of demarcation between rural and urban components of a population is very difficult. This is due to the social, cultural, political and economic perspectives through which they are viewed[6]; [7].

This has resulted to a situation in which there is no one universal definition of a rural area. Faced with the difficulties in the definition of rural areas, census bodies at the national levels, international organizations and scholars in various disciplines have resorted to the use of selected approaches in their definitions[8]. These definitions are, however, also known to have limitations[9]. To overcome the limitations, researchers and international organizations have developed some typologies and indicators in order to better understand the dynamics of rural areas. This is with a view to developing relevant policies for rural areas[10];[7]. More importantly the purpose is to create territorial and rural indicators that can be used to compare sub-national territories[11].

In line with the primary or traditional and cultural perspectives, it could be clearly observed that rural areas are characterized by;

● Specific open landscape;

● A relatively low population density;

● The greater part of the population being associated with agriculture and forestry;

● Traditional (close to nature) life styles and habits;

● Extensive (first and foremost agricultural and forest - related) use of land;

● A scarcity of built-up areas and settlement that is dispersed; and

● A preponderance of inhabitants considering themselves Country-dwellers.

However, the term rural development has been viewed by scholars to means the restructuring of the economy in order to satisfy the material needs and aspirations of the rural masses, and to promote individual and collective incentives to participate in the process of development. This involves a host of multi-sectoral activities, including the improvement of agriculture, the promotion of rural industries, the creation of the requisite infrastructure and social overheads, as well as the establishment of appropriate decentralized structures in order to allow mass participation.

To attain rural development therefore, infrastructure plays a pervasive role and acts as a catalyst for economic growth. Its provision can reduce the health burden suffered by the rural community and encourages increasing productivity, thereby attracting enterprise and reducing the level of poverty.

This is why the definition of rural area, based solely on population size, masks the varying intensity or degree of rurality exhibited in country like Nigeria[6]. This is because it has been shown that as a result of the heterogeneity of rural areas, the definition of rural, based only on population and/or one single economic activity (commonly agriculture), is not enough to define areas or regions as rural[10];[12].

Effective rural development policies must be based on an accurate classification of the essential characteristics of the regional types. Such a frame work allows the identification of both needs and opportunities in the rural areas[13].

The consequences of lack of proper understanding of rurality on rural development are that the advantages associated with targeting policies to rural areas based on better understanding of the dynamics and sense of identity are not harnessed[14].

It becomes pertinent that the true picture of the rural situation in Nigeria specially the south-eastern part can only be obtained by an analysis and mapping of the rural structure based on internationally recognized indicators and methodology. This is necessary because today, changes in rural areas are accompanied by growing requirements for comparability especially in statistics across countries, reflecting the phenomenon of globalization[15].

2. Causes of Urbanization

Urbanization and urban cities although existed in Nigeria before the colonial period, it was at a very low key such as centres of barter trade etc. However, the advent of colonialism gave prominence to this phenomenon. This is because colonialism came with it certain infrastructures and facilities made essentially for the comfort of the colonial masters. Some of the infrastructures are pipe-borne water, electricity, tarred roads etc. Soon the comfort provided by such modern infrastructural facilities started attracting rural dwellers particularly those that brought their farm products for sale to the Europeans as well as Africans that served them. The upsurges of population of urban centres are mainly due to such comforts.[16] Such urban center in the present day South Eastern Nigeria are cities like Aba, Umuahia, Eungu, Owerri etc.

Researchers observed that urban development has been historically influenced by both geography and institutions. Living in cities permits individuals and families to take advantage of the opportunities of proximity, diversity, and market place competition. For instance the presence of a port in the city is a major facility able to influence the development process profoundly[17]. In fact, the dramatic increase in international trade in the late Middle Ages was mainly driven by two factors: innovation in shipping technology and the rise of capitalist institutions[18]. As first argued by[19] and empirically demonstrated by[20] the focal point of international trade until the end of the Seventeenth century was the Mediterranean Basin. People move into cities to seek economic opportunities. A major contributing factor is known as rural flight. There is the difficulty in improving one’s standard of living in rural area beyond basic sustenance.

Cities are presupposedly known to be places where money, services and wealth are centralized. Cities are where fortunes are made and where social mobility is possible. Businesses, which generate jobs and capital, are usually located in urban areas.

These are some of the reasons why some people living in a rural area might wish to move to the city and trying to make enough money. Furthermore, there are better basic services as well as other specialist services that aren’t found in rural areas. Think of services and opportunities like more job opportunities and greater variety of jobs, good hospital and professional medical care. Other factors include a greater variety of entertainment and better qualities of education, etc are all factors that propel rural-urban migration, which are primarily factors that based on lack of infrastructure in rural areas.

The condition above is the result of changes in time, like the changes from a pre-industrial society to an industrial one, resulting to industrialization. Another factor leading to rural-urban migration is the neglect of the infrastructure of rural areas. Many people may move to the city for better economic or educational opportunities due to a lack of markets, good transportation facilities, schools, health facilities, and so on, in the rural communities. From their survey of rural infrastructure in Nigeria,[21] found that wide urban-rural disparities were a major reason for the massive rural-urban migration of the 1970s.

It is worthy of note that characteristics such as age, gender, ethnic background, socio-economic status, educational status and religion influence the decision to migrate to the city. For instance,[22] study in Anambra State[Eastern Nigeria] found that many Igbo families encourage members to migrate, believing that staying in the village or rural area will not bring financial success.

Colonial rule contributed to the development of a number of urban settlements, especially along the evolving rail and road-river networks in eastern Nigerian. Such centres include Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu, Owerri, Umuahia, Okigwe, Calabar and Onitsha. By virtue of their easy accessibility, each of these serves as a point of trade articulation for their tributary areas in the expanding international economic relations involving the export of agricultural produce and minerals, and the import of manufactured goods. Such roles have immense population pulling potential. With such a head start, these centres have continued to attract the bulk of the modern urban infrastructure, and of the industrial and commercial activities.[3]

2.1. Urban Sprawl: The Result of Migration

The rate of world’s urban growth is in leaps and bounds and the African continent is not left out in this prevailing city growth or expansion. Today, some 50% percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. The year 2007 was expected to mark a watershed in human history, when for the first time, half of the world population would be living in cities. In Africa, the last of urbanization grew from 19%[53 million] in 1960 to 27%[129 million] in 1980[23]. By 2000, it had reached 38%[297 million] and it is still growing with the expected average to reach 55% by 2030[24].

In Nigeria, the experience was spurred by the oil boom prosperity of the 1970s and the massive improvements in roads and the availability of vehicles, Nigeria since independence has become an increasingly urbanized and urban-oriented society. During the 1970s Nigeria had possibly the fastest urbanization growth rate in the world. Because of the great influx of people into urban areas, the growth rate of urban population in Nigeria in 1986 was estimated to be close to 6 percent per year, more than twice that of the rural population. Between 1970 and 1980, the proportion of Nigerians living in urban areas was estimated to have grown from 16 to more than 20 percent, and by 2010, urban population was expected to be more than 40 percent of the nation's total. Although Nigeria did not have the highest proportion of urban population in sub-Saharan Africa, it had more large cities and the highest total urban population of any sub-Saharan African country.[5]

The Federal Republic of Nigeria[25] report shows that of the over 45 million urban poor in Nigeria, 53.4% have access to safe drinking water, 49.2% to basic sanitation, and 60.5% have access to electricity, while 68.4% and 45.9% have access to basic educational and healthcare facilities, respectively[25].

The process of urbanization is now more rapid and massive and affects a greater part of the world than ever before, mainly because it is now rampant in the less developed countries, which still board 3/4^th of the world’s people[4].

The migration of hundreds of millions of rural folk to cities in these still chiefly agrarian countries is revolutionizing the life of humanity just as surely as are the other major aspects of economic and social modernization. These mass movement to the urban centers results to the breakdown of the urban system often due to the stresses that these migrants creates to the urban dwellers like transportation, housing, education, electricity, water shortage, security and other services that fails as these migrants arrives.

As[26] states, ‘in order to understand what is happening in rural communities today, and to find ways to improve the situation of rural people, we need to look at a wider social field – one that includes people located in urban areas, both elites and non-elites, as well as those located in rural areas’.

3. The Challenging Situation of Nigerian Cities and Town

The issue of migration can be traced to be rooted in the inaccessibility of infrastructure in the rural areas.

Many of the major cities had growing manufacturing sectors, including, for example, textile mills, steel plants, car assembly plants, large construction companies, trading corporations, and financial institutions. They also included government-service centers, large office and apartment complexes, along with a great variety of small business enterprises, many in the "informal sector," and vast slum areas. All postsecondary education installations were in urban centers, and the vast majority of salaried jobs remained urban rather than rural.[5]

Researchers have discovered that in developing countries, the spatial distribution of services and facilities has great influence on the health and well-being of the people.[27] It emerged from the rhythm of life set by masses of people going to work each day; the teeming central market areas; the large trading and department stores; the traffic, especially at rush hours; and the excitement of night life that was nonexistent in most rural areas. All these factors, plus the increased opportunity to connect with the rich and powerful through chains of patron-client relations, made the city attractive, lively, and dangerous[5].

The dominant features of most Nigerian urban landscape today is that of haphazardly growing shanty-towns, of slum and squatter developments.[28] in his analysis, explained that these features are now pervasive phenomena in most large and intermediate cities, with the configuration of these cities largely defined by where these illegal settlements spring up. These features and trends are making it all the more expensive, if not impossible, to provide such unplanned city areas with basic services. These situations are the result of migration of people to towns and cities to discover that they had no place to fit in thereby constituting a high level imbalance to such areas. Further it results in poor infrastructure facilities and deteriorating public utilities such as poor drainage and inadequate sanitation, inadequate water supplies, mounds of garbage and other solid waste, constrained mobility as a result of outdated physical layouts, or no planned layout.

The impact of these situation noted above has lead to the flourishing of street trading, overcrowding and inadequate provision of services like transportation and the deteriorated road facilities resulting in congestion, noise and pollution. Activities have developed and located with no regards for transport distances or local natural conditions.

As[28] pointed out that over 60% of urban residents in some cities in Nigeria now live in unplanned and uncontrolled urban settlements. The instance of cities like Lagos and some others in South-Eastern Nigeria has been characterized as a bedlam, sprawling with filth and stench from uncleared refuse and drainage.

Throughout the literature the level of urbanization in developing countries is forecasted to continue to grow. As the data verifies, the more developed part of the world is already highly urbanized and is only set to grow incrementally, while the process of urbanization in developing regions is very strong. Over the next 30 years the urbanization level in developing countries is expected to grow by factor 1.4 to 56 percent.

3.1. Statistical Variation of some Cities and Rural Areas in South-East Nigeria

Table 2. Population Census Figues of Selected Cities and Rural Areas of South-Eastern Nigeria.[35] Local Government Area Area [Sq.km] 1991 Population Census 2006 Population Census Percentage Increase/ Decrease Rate Abia State Abia State Abia State Abia State Abia State Aba North 22.96 86,331 107,448 24,46% Aba South 49.55 413,825 423,852 2.42% Obi Ngwa 398.51 324.972 181.439 44.17% Anambra State Anambra State Anambra State Anambra State Anambra State Awka North 356.03 60.728 112.192 84.75% Awka South 172.21 130.664 189.654 45.15% oyi 138.02 204.041 168.201 17.56% Enugu State Enugu State Enugu State Enugu State Enugu State Udi 908.71 160.500 238.305 48.47% Nsukka 491.13 220.411 309.448 40.39% Isu-Uzo 889.62 197.395 148.597 24.72% Imo State Imo State Imo State Imo State Imo State Ikeduru 180.40 108.367 149.737 38.17% Aboh-Mbaise 186.12 115.360 194.779 68.84% Nkwerre 38.45 126.030 80.270 36.30%

There is no doubt that the underdevelopment of the rural areas in Nigeria results from the negligence they suffer from different governments that have come and gone and the opposing focus these governments have on the urban areas. The migration rate and the rapid growth of these selected cities in South-Eastern Nigeria, when compared with the rural area, justify the fact that these government have more focus of urban centers. Between 1991 population census and that of 2006, some of these selected cities have almost double in number and not so much have been done in providing and improving infrastructure in them.

This underdevelopment encourages the massive migration of rural dwellers to the cities in search of better living conditions. And in addition to the natural urban population growth, the unchecked migration contributes to the proliferation in urban population. This, in turn, causes unprecedented city expansion, enormous over-stretching of infrastructural facilities and high rate of unemployment. As such, it could be said that the problems of Nigerian cities particularly that of South-Eastern part of the country revolve around rapid urban population growth through rural-urban migration.

One can easily summarize the situation of cities in South-East Nigeria which may not be significantly different from most other Nigerian cities as cases that cities are poorly governed. Furthermore, that environmental degradation is most evident everywhere and the state of infrastructural facilities is everywhere disappointing. Roads are in very advanced state of disrepair and maintenance of drains neglected everywhere, service delivery of water supply and electricity is erratic at best in many cases not available and mass transportation for urban residents is in poor supply.

4. Imbalance in Accessibility of Infrastructure

In[2] examination of different scholars work and their different approaches in examining accessibility of infrastructure to needed users. The works of[29] using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in measuring access to parks and physical activity sites in New York City.[27] adopted GIS technology and fuzzy logic methods in their study of accessibility to neighborhood facilities in the city of Tehran, Iran, while[30] evaluated physical accessibility to healthcare in Khulna City, Bangladesh using the distance from health facilities and the time required to reach the nearest health facility. Nigeria ([31];[32];[33]) have used residents’ satisfaction with the physical presence and quality of basic amenities and neighborhood facilities to evaluate accessibility to neighborhood facilities in public housing. Findings of these studies indicate that the residents of public housing in these countries generally have poor access to basic services and infrastructural facilities. This is a clear result of migration over taking and over burdening the infrastructure services of not just African but Nigerian cities. Findings of literatures support the general view that there is a poor state of urban infrastructural facilities and services in most Nigerian cities.

Close to 70 per cent of the population of eastern Nigeria live in rural areas. Migration between rural and urban areas in Nigeria has had a significant impact on both the rural and urban areas because of the number of people involved and the fact that most of these have been the young, often male, most productive members of the rural population. Inequality of opportunities for economic advancement is the major factor that compels rural-urban migration.

5. Conclusions

The underdevelopment rural life and work attractive, has become the reason why so many generation will decide to leave rural area to the urban centers.

There is therefore, no consensus as to what constitutes the right way to rural development. Approaches vary from promoting accelerated development of rural people to encouraging self-help schemes; from promoting integrated rural development programmes addressed to the socio-economic development of all sectors within a given spatial system to the felt-need or the participatory approach designed to involve residents in the selection and pursuance of specific social and economic goals.

If infrastructure facilities are provided, the people are capable of self-generation. Thus, there should be a reformed infrastructural policy that focuses on meeting user demands. This would be a radical departure from the traditional concentration on the supply of services with little attention paid to the user[34].

The provision of adequate social amenities and facilities in the rural areas like pipe borne water, electricity, good roads, hospitals, schools, recreational centers etc, and developing a firm work that have rural mayor or administrator and not the rural chiefs or local government chairman to handle these facilities and creates the right environment for business and investment will reduce the level of migration to the cities thereby giving hope of a better life to the rural communities, will turn out to be a better option to migration to cities and towns in reach of the above mentioned facilities.

Having a framework that establishes rural mayors or administrators with the basic purpose of dealing more effectively, not only with problems of rural migration, but re-planning, reconstructing and rehabilitating of substandard or insanitary areas of the rural communities, having such proactive altitude to planning and development as well as with the authority to provide civic facilities to help address the problem of rural economic development, will provide a more better approach in sustaining the cities.

6. Note all Correction Made; Good to Go

Advantages of living in the city:

# Improved quality of life;

# More opportunities for securing a better income;

# Availability of social amenities;

# Exposure to people from different ethnic groups, with greater exchange of ideas;

# Access to better medical facilities; and

# Presence of large markets for sale of products in large quantity.

Meanwhile, in the wave of globalization, many countries are now investing huge amounts of money in infrastructure projects, seeking a more integrated domestic market and easier access to world business.[36]. But despite the huge investment that national governments and multilateral aid agencies seems to invest in infrastructure provision in cities over the years has not been able to be commensurate to the level of decay and dilapidation of cities. With investment in infrastructure in the United States estimated at as high as $1.4 trillion, concerns about its deterioration are also on the increase.

Cities in developing world are always plagued by the disease of migration from rural regions to the cities. With 75% of India’s population in villages, it is inequitable to have 90% of economic benefits going to the urban regions that houses only 25% of the people. Naturally the populace from the rural regions will come to pick their share of benefits into the urban sector. In doing so, they bring down the city infrastructure and economy.

7. Urban Primacy of Aba

Abia State is one of the States in Eastern Nigeria. Of the two major towns in Abia State (Aba and Umuahia), Aba is the largest. The town is situated on a plain with Aba River Valley on its eastern side as the only prominent physical feature. According to the 1991 provisional census, the population of the area, now split into two LGAs (Aba North and Aba South), was 494,152 people.

The town is accessible by road from all parts of the eastern states (Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River, Rivers, Akwa lbom, Anambra and Enugu States). Aba has one of the railway stations on the eastern railway. It has the largest concentration of people in the state. It is the largest commercial centre in the state with the famous Ariaria Market sited west of the town, close to the Port-Harcourt-Enugu Expressway. Industrial enterprises has developed in Aba, but the main economic activity remains commerce in all its forms, much of it driven by vibrant informal sector activity, including manufacture of textiles, clothing, shoes, polyethylene products, beverages and so on. Aba’s growth as a commercial centre was greatly boosted by the relocation of many Igbos from across the country, where many Igbos owned thriving import-export trading businesses before the war.

Besides, there is the Ngwa Market, the Cemetery Market and virtually every street in Aba has its share of the business activities for which the town is known. There are a good number of both public and private industrial establishments as well as financial institutions.

Aba has the widest migration field of all cities in eastern part of Nigeria, and is not only ethnically diverse, but shows great social diversity from one part of the city to another.[6]

As a result of the primate role enjoyed by Aba in the hierarchy of settlements in the state, enormous environmental problems have become manifest. These include refuse heaps, traffic congestion, overcrowding of residential areas, and the pollution of water bodies etc.

8. Sustainability of Cities

Sustainability is a vision and a process, not an end product[26].

The definition of sustainability most people have excerpted from Brundtland is that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.

The concept of sustainability has emerged from a global political process that has tried to bring together, simultaneously, the most powerful needs of our time: (i) the need for economic development to overcome poverty, (ii) the need for environmental protection of air, water, soil and biodiversity, upon which we all ultimately depend, and (iii) the need for social justice and cultural diversity to enable local communities to express their values in solving these issues.

Creating a conducive atmosphere for communities to express their values involves the development of those facilities and services that enables the realization of such goal. Based on Brundtland report that presented evidence from around the globe that poverty is one factor degrading the environment because of population growth, growing rapidly, the environment suffers inevitably. This situation is not far from the attractions of industrialization on people from the rural communities to the cities, which cannot absorb the mass influx of people, now creating a problem of degradation of urban environment.

Restoring and enhancing order, environmental health and more productive urban development and its sustainability requires that the rural communities be properly planned and managed also. Such planning is the only rational framework to appropriately provide for quality serviced land in adequate quantities, to provide adequate and integrated environmental infrastructure, to improve health through securing access for all people to sufficient, continuous and safe water, sanitation, drainage and waste disposal services.

8.1. Conclusions

Sustainable development of Nigerian cities must be ensured. This is to manage the development of cities in a way to satisfy the present social, economic, and environmental goals of cities without compromising the future satisfaction. This helps to overcome the limitations of past human settlement policies and satisfy the growing demand for democratic governance at all level.

Finally, using the mineral resources; products of the rural communities and their cultural heritage can be a source of development for the communities. This can be actualized by sitting of manufacturing plant that will need to operate with those mineral resources in those communities where they are found and making adequate policies and provision of other infrastructural facilities available so as to encourage the production of the manufacturing plant and the export of its produce. Furthermore, cultural heritage can boost rural life by creatively turning it into tourist attraction etc this will attract other development that will promote the well being of the rural dwellers and reduce the pressure of migrating to urban centers.