Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

Migration refers to a more or less permanent movement of populations made up of individuals or groups over and/or across geographical, political or symbolic boundaries into new domains. Under normal circumstances, a distinction is made between push and pull factors in the analysis of migration. The push factors are seen as inducing the conservative, circumspect individuals/groups into migration. The pull factors on the other hand, encourage the risk taking liberal individuals to migrate. However, the socioeconomic and political situations in Nigeria are far from normal. In spite of her abundant endowment of human and natural resources, Nigeria remains a poor country. Nigeria was ranked third among countries having extremely poor people in a 2014 World Bank Poverty Index titled “Prosperity for All-Ending Extreme Poverty”. Four years later, a report by the World Poverty Clock indicates that Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the most extreme poor people in the world. This parlous state of the Nigerian economy breeds poverty among the citizenry. About 13.4 percent of the population is unemployed, 70 percent live below poverty line and life expectancy is 54 years while GDP per capita in Nigeria is five thousand, nine hundred dollars. it is against this background that this study employs the historical materialist perspective to critically interrogate this scarcity amidst the abundance of both human and natural resources in Nigeria, leading to scandalous levels of deprivation that are manifest in desperate migrations of Nigerians to even countries whose resources cannot compare favourably with Nigeria. The study relies mainly on primary and secondary sources of data which are presented in percentages, tables and graphs as deemed necessary for elucidation. The findings of this research suggest that the elimination of poverty will stem the tide of desperate migrations in Nigeria.

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