Evaluation of Liveability Pattern of Selected Blighted Areas in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Blight formation, especially in a developing nation like Nigeria, has become an issue of discourse owing to its socio-eco-physical and environmental consequences on man. While various studies have focused on blight and its effects on the human environment, its effect on liveability has not been adequately researched in literature. This study, therefore, investigated the liveability pattern of selected blighted areas in Ibadan. Both primary and secondary data were sourced for the study. Probability sampling was used to randomly select three neighbourhoods (Agugu, Mokola, Yemetu) from the core and periphery of Ibadan. Systematic sampling was used to administer a questionnaire to 243 (9%) households randomly selected from 2702 buildings in the selected areas. A liveability index was developed in which sampled households’ responses on liveability indicators used for the study were scored and used in ranking the level of the livability of the neighbourhoods. The liveability level was ranked in terms of ‘very good’ (70–100%), ‘good’ (50–69%), ‘fair’ (40–49%) and ‘poor’ (less than 40%). Aggregate scores for the liveability index of each neighbourhood were measured in terms of the percentage of the sampled households within it that had a score of at least 50%. Data on respondents’ socio-economic characteristics were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (multiple regressions, ANOVA). Focus Group Discussions (FGD) that were used to complement the data were content analyzed. Findings showed that male respondents were 35.4% while the female was 64.6%; 49.6% of the respondents were married, 11.1% were divorced and 8% were separated, and 76.5% had more than three persons in their household. The study also revealed Mokola as the neighbourhood with the highest level of liveability (63%), followed by Agugu (21%); Yemetu has the lowest level of liveability (2%). Strategies were proposed to improve the level of the liveability of neighbourhoods in the city of Ibadan. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.