ANALYSIS OF RURAL INCOME INEQUALITY IN NIGERIA: BEFORE AND DURING THE DEMOCRATIC ERA

Income inequality is a global issue affecting all and sundry across the globe in both developed and developing economies. It could result in a high probability of revolution, high rent-seeking policies, a breakdown of social cohesion and a signal of low democracy. Democracy as a form of government was created to ensure that every citizen enjoys the dividends of government. If this is true, democracy should therefore serve to reduce income inequality in the world. The extent to which this is true for Nigeria is yet to get sufficient research interest. Therefore, this study examined the income inequalities in rural Nigeria before and during the democratic era and measured the contributions of different socio-economic factors to income inequality. This study utilized the General Household Survey Panel and the National Consumers Survey data. This study employed the Gini coefficient, theil index, Lorenz curve, and the regression-based inequality decomposition method as techniques of data analysis. The result revealed that income inequality had decreased by 6% from the pre-democratic era to the current democratic era. The proportion of middle-class population has increased by 1.35%. The years of education contributed the most to total inequality (23.5%), the dependency ratio contributed-15.3%, age contributed-0.59%, household size contributed 6.2%, gender of household head contributed 0.03%, and marital status contributed 0.1% to the total income inequality. There is thus a need to gear programmes and policies to boost the education system, empower women and strengthen democratic institutions to ensure income equality.