Travel Disadvantage in Selected Rural Border Communities of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined travel disadvantage in selected rural border communities of Oyo State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used for the survey. Two local government areas were selected from the border State (Oyo State) on the basis of their closeness to the border. Four rural border settlements were selected from each of the selected local government areas through simple random selection process. This was followed by selection of every third house in the respective settlements after the first house was randomly selected. A total of 115 duly completed questionnaires administered to the household head in each sampled household were used. It was discovered in the study that majority (94%) of the residents move around by trekking with 65% of the respondents trekking long distances between 1km and 5 km daily. The major reason for the travel disadvantage situation was attributed to the bad condition of the roads which restricts the movement of vehicle. However, in other to salvage the situation, the residents used communal labour to create new paths or widen the existing ones for easy passage of vehicles and passengers. Also the residents sold their products at extremely low prices to middlemen from towns. This study therefore concluded that transport situation in rural border areas of Nigeria needs urgent attention to ensure the liveability of the area and its economic development.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n2p123