Intra-regional disparity in human welfare in the nigerian niger delta: the need for sub-regional integration

This paper evaluates the socio-physical and socio-economic improvements oil exploration and production have brought to the oil bearing sub-region relative to non-oil bearing sub-regions of Ondo State in the Nigerian Niger Delta. The aim is to compare the level of development and human welfare in both sub-regions. Ilaje and Edo-Odo (the oil bearing local government areas); and Okitipupa and Irele (two non-oil bearing local government areas) were selected for the study. Sixteen different types of improvement areas were expressed by the people in the two sub-regions. In analyzing the data, qualitative and quantitative; parametric and non-parametric statistics were used for analyses of the variables, both inter-regionally and intra-regionally. The result shows that some degree of relationship exists between the two sub-regions as Ø = 0.48 (positive and moderate correlation). The study reveals the gap between the perception of the people in both areas as 48.2% of respondents in the oil producing area believed that oil has not brought any improvement to their areas, which is against what obtained in the non-oil bearing area where 98.4% believed oil has brought improvement to their areas. Student‘t’ test and correlation analyses revealed that there is a significant difference in improvement between the two sub-regions (0.000 p-value). The Chi-square and Spearman’s correlation results (0.000 p-value for both) also show very significant difference in both socio-physical and socio-economic life of the people. The paper concludes that the non-oil bearing sub-region of Ondo State is relatively better off in terms of physical infrastructural facilities and socio-economic development indices. The study develops an intra-regional integration scheme, as a paradigm shift, and recommends application of spill-over concept to achieve integrated regional development in the study area.