Dr. Joseph Okuta Ajor

MBBS (Sydney), FRACS (Paediatric Surgery)

Dr. Joseph Okuta Ajor is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and International Studies, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Nigerian and African studies, with a specialty in migrations, ethnic and integration Studies. His Doctoral study on ‘Rural-rural migration’ a near neglected theme in Nigerian history, focused on the movements of peasant people across present Nigerian internal state boundaries and fills a lacuna in Nigerian historiography. The study focuses on the labour movement of peasant farmers from the rural areas of Bekwarra in Cross River State, to the rural areas of Yorubaland in South Western Nigeria and some Middle-Belt areas in Central Nigeria. His examination of the activities of this segment of the Nigerian rural population has exposed in bold relief their impact on all the societies concerned, economically, socially, culturally, educationally, politically and religiously. The work has shown that these migrants, by vacillating concurrently between their homes and destination areas, among other benefits, helped in balancing the difference in the labour needs of the study areas by redirecting labour supply from low to high peak demand areas. The work represents a major paradigm shift in the study of internal migrations in Nigeria heretofore focused on the rural-urban drift of populations and their attendant problems of urbanization and social dislocations. He has also written on some important issues like Settler- Indigene Relations in Nigeria; History: The Epicentre of National Integration; The Realism of Nigerian Nationalism and the Challenges of Nationhood; The Place of History in Mitigating National Challenges: The Case of Nigeria, and many others. Dr Ajor is a widely traveled scholar, having attended conferences both locally and internationally and has contributed to the body of knowledge with researched articles in reputable journals and book chapters. .