Absentee State, Dismissive Peasants:Interrogating State-Rural Community Relations in Nigeria

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dc.contributor.authorAdegbenga Isaac Aladegbola
dc.contributor.authorOlaniyan Azeez O
dc.contributor.authorOdewusi Oluwasola M
dc.date.accessioned2026-08-18T10:55:43Z
dc.date.available2026-08-18T10:55:43Z
dc.date.issued0000
dc.description.abstractThis study explores the pattern, nature, and outcomes of the relationship between the Nigerian state and its rural communities. The central argument of this work is that factors shaping the interaction between the Nigerian state and the rural communities are in the realm of two interrelated perceptions: absenteeism and dismissal. Using the rural communities in Ekiti Southwest Local Government Area of Nigeria as case studies and employing an ethnographic, qualitative research method, the study interrogates the absentee-dismissive conundrum of state-local community relations in Nigeria. Fieldwork was conducted between 2020 and 2021 across the villages and hamlets of Ogotun Ekiti, drawing on twenty key-informant and in-depth interviews with village inhabitants, community leaders, and government officials, supplemented by direct observation. Specifically, the study discovered that with a state presence that is at best sporadic and minimal in substance, the Nigerian state is perceived by rural dwellers as habitually absent, and this perceived errant behavior has resulted in a dismissive attitude towards the state. The study further engages Goran Hyden’s thesis of the uncaptured African peasantry, which attributes rural underdevelopment in Tanzania to peasants’ refusal to be captured by the modern economy, and finds that the Nigerian case differs: no modernizing project was ever extended to the rural populace under study, so their dismissiveness functions not as a cause of underdevelopment but as a coping mechanism for surviving it. While state absenteeism deepens underdevelopment, dismissive attitude serves some psychological purposes, and acts as a coping mechanism for the rural populace. The study concludes that so long the Nigerian state continues to neglect the rural majority in planning and execution of policy, rural communities will continue to display dismissive attitudes toward it, complicating efforts to mobilize them for nationhood and development.
dc.identifier.citationAladegbola, I. A., Olaniyan, A. O, Odewusi, O. M. Absentee State, Dismissive Peasants:Interrogating State-Rural Community Relations in Nigeria. International Journal Of Social Work and Development Studies (IJSDS). 1-12.
dc.identifier.issn3115-6932
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.crawforduniversity.edu.ng/handle/123456789/1431
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInternational Journal Of Social Work and Development Studies (IJSDS)
dc.relation.ispartofseries2; 1
dc.titleAbsentee State, Dismissive Peasants:Interrogating State-Rural Community Relations in Nigeria
dc.typeArticle
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