By RevEREND Father John Damian Adizie, OCD

On December 27, 2013, the UN designated October 31 as World Cities Day. It is a day set aside to promote urbanization. The theme of 2017 World Cities Day is: “Innovative Governance, Open Cities.” This theme highlights the important role of urbanization as a source of global development and social inclusion.

Cities are areas where people from different tribes, language and culture and even religion come together, to form a large harmonious society. They are places where wealth and employ-ment are generated; a place that fosters solidity and cohesion. Variety  remains the spice of life!

One of the reasons why people are trooping to the cities is because of direct access to basic amenities such as power supply, good schools, hospitals, banks, and even strong network services. Cities expose peo-ple to several opportunities in life; where they easily get connected with the global world, especially through social media and other social platforms.

The benefit of cities not-withstanding, there are so many disadvantages and challenges facing present day cities. The most obvious one is congestion. Most people, especially youths, are now migrating to the cities. This is causing untold congestion and worries to the cities. People hardly get decent accommodations in the cities. Most people live in congested slums that are  unhygienic. Most of the unemployed youths go into crime and illegal business-es.

Urbanization has shifted people’s attention from agriculture to industrializat-ion. The neglect of agricult-ural development is respon-sible for food shortage. The high demand and less supply of food lead to inflation. City dwellers are merely consu-mers. They make a lot of money but they spend most of them on food and other supplies. Besides, landed properties are so expensive. You can imagine how much people pay for house rent!

As we celebrate World Cities Day, may I use this medium to recommend to the UN to also consider the possibility of establishing World Rural Day, just as we have International Day for Rural Women. Let’s start promoting ruralization. Diversification of economic development cannot be re-alized without rural deve-lopment.

Over-emphasis on urbani-zation leads to neglect of rural development. Rural areas are the most neglected and marginalized areas in the society. Most of the basic amenities that are found in urban cities, such  power/water supply, internet service, hospital and even good road network are not found in rural areas.

As long as development is concerned, Urbanization, for me, is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Ironically, du-ring elections politicians get their votes from rural areas. After election you will hard-ly see them until the next election, or during their fu-neral celebrations, when they are brought home to the same village which they ne-glected, for their burial.

Unfortunately, most of the people that live in rural areas are elderly. A good number of those who are working in urban cities usually settle back home after their retirement. The-se are the more reasons why rural development must be taken seriously. Moreover, East or West, home remains the best!

Most Nigerian churches are practicing urbanizat-ion. The Church collects the harvest/tithe money of the churches in the rural areas to develop bigger parishes in urban areas. That is why the church in the city conti-nues to get richer whereas the one in the rural area remains poor.

Unfortunately, there is no system in place where the city churches are obliged to support rural churches, especially those in the northern part of Nigeria.

One of the visions of International Youth Emp-owerment and Rehabilita-tion programme is youth empowerment through ru-ral development. We are trying to see how we can create agro-based job opp-ortunities and other skill acquisitions in the rural areas for unemployed youths.

We are even training young Seminarians with a similar vision who will help in promoting this pro-gramme in different rural areas across the nation.

Definitely, a tree cannot make a forest, I am using this medium to appeal to  government, non-govern-mental organizations and even the Church to key into this vision of youth emp-owerment through rural development. With this vision we are going to address the issue of unemp-loyment, insurgencies, political agitations, and other crimes such as rob-bery and kidnappings. Happy World Cities Day!