Sustainable Rural Development: The Naam Movement and the Six 'S' Option for Nigeria

Abstract

Although, rural development programmes in Nigeria span the 1970s to date, they are no success stories. Self-sustaining growth and development have eluded the rural areas in Nigeria and the general welfare and standard of living of their population remain poor and miserable. This paper discusses the community-driven development (CDD) approach, which has worked in a number of countries in western Africa, and recommends the adoption of one of them, the Naam Movement and the Six "S", as a workable option for improving rural development in Nigeria, which shares cultural, social and development similarities with these other countries.