Authors : I.A. Ademiluyi and M.O. Solanke
Abstract: Urban centres world wide are perceived as centres of excellence, centres of opportunities where aspirations and desires are met. However, unlike in the more developed countries of Europe and America, where a strong correlation exist between the rate of urbanization and most indicators of development, the situation in African in general and Nigeria in particular is a different story. Urban centres in the developing world are said to be characterized by mixed blessings revealing a candrous of excitement, where joy and terror often intermingle. In this study, the perpetual notion for urban life and the realities of present day Nigerian urban centres are examined. The study observed that the Nigerian urban centres have within the past years witnessed in unprecedented rate of growth that cannot be divorced from the overall changing socio economic structure of the country. This is turn has led to a numerous and complex environmental, economic, political and social problems of which unemployment, environmental deterioration and circulation within the city are perhaps the most vivid ones. The study concludes that for the urban centres in Nigeria to meet the perceptual notion of people, some urgent steps are required to reversed the unpleasant context and hardships under which the phenomenon takes place.
I.A. Ademiluyi and M.O. Solanke , 2008. Perceptual Notion and Realities of Nigerian Urban Centres . Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 5: 177-181.