Dimensions of Urban Poverty in Slum Neighbourhoods of Yenagoa City, Bayelsa State

Introduction

Globally, the population of people living in urban areas has continued to increase over the years. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs projects that Africa and Asia together will account for 86 per cent of all growth in the world’s urban population over the next four decades as against the paltry 30% in 1950. Also, this unprecedented increase will pose new challenges in terms of jobs, housing, and infrastructure. It is projected that Africa’s urban population will increase from 414 million in 2010 to over 1.2 billion by 2050, while that of Asia will soar from 1.9 billion to 3.3 billion. The largest increase in urban population is expected in India, China, Nigeria, the United States of America and Indonesia. Over the next four decades, India will add another 497 million, China-341 million, Nigeria-200 million, USA-103 million, and Indonesia-92 million to their urban population [1].

The quest for better living conditions and opportunities has led to the massive influx of people to the urban areas thereby increasing the rate of urbanization. Inevitably, cities or urban areas have become centres of attraction for people seeking brighter futures and better opportunities. In a world where more than half of the population lives in cities, poverty is increasingly an urban phenomenon. As more people migrate into cities which are often ill-equipped to handle the influx, experts are trying to find ways of defining and measuring urban poverty. Their findings influence humanitarian policy and programs as well as basic services, including health, water and sanitation and education. Ironically, most of the urban poor find themselves in a slum environment. This is mostly because most of these migrants are poor and cannot afford to pay for accommodation in a better environment [2].

Yenagoa, an emerging city and the capital of Bayelsa State, Nigeria is gradually witnessing this trend of urbanization. Bayelsa state being the only homogeneous Ijaw state and Yenagoa serving as its capital has become the prime attraction of Ijaw people around the world. According to Professor Yemi Osibanjo, “Bayelsa State is the Jerusalem of the Ijaw nation”. There has been a significant surge in population into the capital territory of the State which is the only location where employment opportunities are available [3].

However, the expectations of most of these migrants are far from being met. The provision of infrastructure, housing, urban services, and employment opportunities has not been met with the surge in population. While the civil service accounts for the highest source of formal employment in Yenagoa, there is a sharp increase in the informal sector which also includes the provision of housing. Recently, it has been observed that there is an increase in the number of informal settlements or slums in Yenagoa.

Also, the economic fortunes of the state have experienced a nosedive, especially with the rising cost of living largely contributed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent removal of fuel subsidies. The National Bureau of Statistics [4] recently released the highly anticipated multidimensional poverty index report. The report put Nigeria’s poverty index at 0.257, with about 133 million people being multi-dimensionally poor. Based on the data, Bayelsa State is ranked as the second poorest state in Nigeria with a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of 0.401 and 2.61 million poor people, only second to Sokoto State with a poverty index of 0.409 and 5.81 million poor people [4].

In Yenagoa today, the average cost of decent accommodation with modern facilities and a decent environment is beyond the reach of the urban poor. Thus, the poor are forced to settle in slum environments where basic facilities such as good roads, pipe-borne water, and electricity are lacking, and the cost of housing is relatively cheap. Also the upsurge in population due to migration when the state was created further exacerbated the development of slums and its antecedents such as crime, prostitution, drug abuse, cultism and other social vices within Yenagoa metropolis. Community enclaves such as Amarata, Ovom, Onopa, Swali and Yenagoa main town amongst others became the centre of attraction as they accommodated the early migrants. Also, most of the local enclaves developed organically and lack basic infrastructure such as good roads, drainages, pipe-borne water and basic services. Due to the deplorable environmental conditions of these settlements, they have become the choice areas of the urban poor who cannot afford accommodation in other parts of the city. The rise of urban slums and the incidence of poverty and its manifestation have become a subject of concern and as such, it becomes necessary for researchers to assess urban poverty in slum neighbourhoods of Yenagoa city.

Statement of the Problem

Urban poverty is increasingly becoming synonymous with slum neighbourhoods as many urban dwellers who could not afford comfortable living quarters due to the high cost of building their own houses, high house rent and the exorbitant cost of acquisition of urban land have sought refuge in slum neighbourhoods of Yenagoa city [5].

Bayelsa State has been rated as the second poorest state in Nigeria based on the National Bureau of Statistics Multidimensional Poverty Index Report 2022 [4]. Yenagoa, the capital city of Bayelsa State has also witnessed a continued increase in population over the years due to rural-urban migration or urban–urban migration and most of these new migrants are found in the slum neighbourhoods which are extensions of the community settlements.

It has been observed over the years that more people are trapped within these slum neighbourhoods even when they wish to relocate due to their low income. There is also an increase in the rate of crimes such as snatching of phones, theft, cultism, prostitution, and lack of employment opportunities within these neighbourhoods which has further affected the economic fortunes of these areas as most investors are relocating to other parts of the city.

Literature Review

In an analysis of urban poverty in slum neighbourhoods, researchers have come up with some theories that attempt to link urban poverty and slum neighbourhoods. This research depends on two theoretical frameworks which are the theory of marginality and the Theory of Dependency The theory of marginality was first introduced by Robert Park in 1928 and it attempts to explain the reason why poor migrants are mostly found in slum environments. Marginalization is a symbol that refers to processes by which individuals or groups of people are kept at or pushed beyond the edges of society. The term outsides may be used to refer to those individuals or groups who are marginalized [6] positing that due to the theory of marginality, the phenomenon of the growth of poor settlement is widely spread in urban areas due to the migration of rural people to cities with different rural lifestyles contrary to the city lifestyle.

Mostly, these migrants who are in search of greener pastures are found in slum areas where there is a lack of basic amenities and poor housing and environmental conditions. In cities, due to their poor economic level, they gather with people who are in the same conditions, then isolate themselves in poor settlements, in slums that are parochial and in a rustic lifestyle. In this socially isolated place, they are destitute, with inhuman environmental conditions and do not have permanent jobs [6]. The theory of dependency or dependency theory is an approach to understanding economic underdevelopment that emphasizes the constraints imposed by the global political and economic order. The theory was first proposed in the late 1950s by the Argentine economist and statesman Raúl Prebischin 1950 and the theory gained prominence in the 1960s and 70s. Concerning the emergence of slums and perpetuation of poverty in the less developed economies, the global west has continued to impoverish the poorer countries where the resources are sourced from. From the viewpoint of the theory of dependency, the phenomenon of poor urban settlements is a form of capitalist penetration product of rural communities which are structurally “lame” when compared to urban conditions [6]. Capital here in this case includes both technology and humans (skill/labour).

The presence of penetration especially in the form of capitalism experienced in rural areas results in the emergence of minority capitalist elites who dominate the fields of agricultural land ownership, knowledge, technology, information, and power, while most members of the community lack access to these resources. Before the capitalist penetration occurs in the countryside, the relationship between landlords and farm workers is quite harmonious, in the form of high personal and social relations rather than economic relations which tend to be rational and straightforward due to the capitalist penetration. The broad effect of capitalist penetration is increasing unemployment in rural areas because if they want to get involved, they must have access to capital, land, skills, information, and power, while the majority has nothing, so it leads to dependency on the elite living in the countryside.

The situation and conditions in rural areas force them to find a way out, such as migrating to big cities to find a job and boost their income. In other words, there is a push factor, that is, unemployment and poverty in rural areas, whereas another factor is the pull factor, which is interest and hope arising from rapid urban growth as a cause of their moves to cities. Because most migrants are not equipped with adequate skills, expertise, and education, it is difficult for them to get into formal economy fields, such as state companies, private companies, or government bureaucratic offices in big cities.

Impact of Urban Poverty

Urban poverty has significant effects on slum generation in neighbourhoods. In Nairobi, Kenya, Park [7] in his article titled; Poverty Trap; Neighbourhood and Violent Victimisation and Offending in Nairobi Kenya observed that there exists a robust and positive relationship between residential stability and personal victimisation, in addition to a positive association between household-level residential stability and family violence, shows support for the negative effects associated with poverty traps in urban Africa. Neighbourhood characteristics matter for public safety in Nairobi, but frameworks for examining neighbourhood effects must consider the context of chronically poor neighbourhoods in urban areas.

The European Union Urban Innovative Action, observes that poverty has multiple contributing factors such as unemployment or working in precarious jobs, low income/ pensions and inadequate social benefits, low educational attainment, health inequalities, high housing costs/poor housing quality and location, barriers to access to quality services, childcare and education and inefficient service delivery, consistent rise in the level of household costs such as food, utility, transportation expenses, the rise of single households/single parents, discrimination and low level of participation in community and public life.

They further assert that these factors tend to combine with others to create a vicious cycle of poverty that is structural and visibly concentrated spatially in many EU cities and neighbourhoods. This point is particularly important - poverty not only exacerbates social differences between people and groups; but also leads to significant effects on the way that cities define their spaces and zones. As poverty increases, so too does the risk of concentration of the urban poor in deprived areas, which are characterised by social segregation, stigmatization of a wider section of citizens, reduced mobility, limited access to credit, housing deprivation and not only environmental degradation but reduced public spending on its prevention.

Methodology

The study adopted a mixed-method research approach. The Yenagoa Master Plan [8] was delineated into a Total Planning Area comprising an area 15km radius of the city centre and an immediate action area 5km radius. A total of 17 homogenous communities were identified to be within the immediate action area of a 5km radius. These communities include Akaba, Ogu, Obogoro, Famgbe, Yenaka, Bebelibiri, Yenagoa, Swali, Azikoro, Agbura, Amarata, OvomOnopa, Ekeki, Okaka, Yenezue- Epieand Kpansia.-Epie.

The Sample population is drawn randomly from five communities that fall within a 5km radius of the city centre. The simple random sampling technique was adopted in the selection of 30% of these neighbourhoods or communities which include Yenagoa, Swali, Ovom, Amarata and Azikoro. The disaggregated 1991 population figures for these communities were projected to 2023. The 1991 census figure for the target communities is 23477. The projected population figure of 57,283 was arrived at using the exponential equation with a growth rate of 2.83% suggested by the National Population Commission [9] as shown in Table 1.

Conclusion

The study focused on an assessment of urban poverty in the slum neighbourhood of Yenagoa City, using some selected communities as the study area. The characteristics of slum dwellers were identified and further established that they are affected by urban poverty since they earn minimal income below the national minimum wage. The dimensions of poverty assessed in the study also reveal that the respondents have access to health care facilities and educational facilities, but poverty has also reduced most of the respondents from using the facility. The housing and environmental conditions were also observed to be poor, and poverty has further hindered most respondents from relocating to better neighbourhoods. The study further affirms that poverty has led to an increase in crime and criminality as well as insecurity of lives and poor tenure security as most property owner has no form of title documents over their landed property. Various suggestions were also made on how the various stakeholders can contribute to the reduction of poverty and improvement of the environment to enhance the liveability in the study area.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of the study, it is imperative that to reduce the incidence of urban poverty in slum areas, the following recommendations are hereby suggested:

• The Bayelsa State Government and urban communities should collaborate with Urban and Regional Planners in the designing and development of neighbourhoods to checkmate the emergence of slum development in the study area.
• The Bayelsa State Government and Yenagoa City Local Government Council should collaborate with urban communities to carry out urban renewal schemes and programmes in the affected neighbourhoods to improve residents’ living conditions, revitalise the local economy and social re-engineering of the communities to eliminate slum development.
• The government at the state and local levels should collaborate with international donor agencies and other NGOs to provide skills acquisition training programmes and schemes to develop the skills of residents to be self-reliant to have access to available employment opportunities in the city.
• Bayelsa State Government, Yenagoa City Local Government Council and other development agencies should form a development synergy to provide basic infrastructural facilities and services in the neighbourhoods to improve quality of life and encourage residents to diversify into other sources of income for economic sustainability.
• The Bayelsa State Government should collaborate with security agencies and communities to establish community policing to improve security architecture and crime prevention strategies in the study area.