Migration as Catalyst for Rural Industrialization

From the last decade of the 19th century, Igbomina people under diverse pressures (socio-economic etc) trickled into Lagos as migrants engaging in such menial jobs as palm wine tapping, canoe paddling, hawking and carriers (head porterage) in an entirely alien environment quite inhospitable for people from rural setting. The socio-economic transformation of this extra-terrestrial alien working with the energy of a ceylon represents one of the most spectacular aspects of the 20th century social history of Kwara State, Nigeria. This work holds that instead of impoverishing the rural community to which Igbomina people belonged, migration has resulted in positive rural transformation of the condition at the home front of the Igbomina. It is an important component of population change and modernization process as it influences not only the economy but also the society in general.