Rural Development in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects for Transforming the Rural Majority

This paper assesses rural development in Nigeria. It specifically examines the extent to which the government has positively impacted on the living conditions of the majority of Nigeria’s population who lives in and earns their living in the rural areas. Data for this paper were gathered together from secondary literature sources. Evidently from the findings, past governmental policies on rural development have always been elitist, state centrist, and state-directed policies without the desired impact in effectively transforming the lives of the rural dwellers to an appreciable level. The study, therefore, suggests that the government should as a matter of policy generates alternative strategic options which aim at addressing the problem of rural development through the participation of the people.