Ujamaa as a Development Philosophy in Tanzania: Lessons for Rural Development in Nigeria

The quest for Nigeria and developing countries in general to attain the status of developed countries has failed because the developments of rural areas that have majority of the population have been neglected. This paper relied on secondary sources of data by making use of past literature in order to examine the historical background, success and failures of Ujamaa in Tanzania. The thrust of this paper was to draw out lessons that Nigeria can learn from the Ujamaa experience in Tanzania. It was clear that the settlement reorganization and collective cultivation as well as a rekindling of the African traditional socialist values will drive the needed development. The paper concluded by suggesting some measures to ensure sustainable rural development programmes in Nigeria. These include the encouragement of citizen participation, design of a comprehensive rural development template, spatial reorganization and ideological reorientation among others.