Assessment of the Impact of Local Government on Rural Development
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To assess the impact of Local Government on rural development
- To determine the basic principle and techniques necessary for implementing rural development projects.
- To highlight some of the problems associated with the impact of rural development projects like corruption, mismanagement, and misappropriation.
- To find out the number of programmes and projects implemented toward rural development
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Local Government and Rural Development
Communal effort has not been a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the time of primitive communalism when people searched for their living communally. In the early state of man, he always sought ways of conquering nature. Bryne (1983:55) argues that the concept of community development is not new, that rather it is an old ideology. The reality in Bentham’s assertion that community development is a man in the society can be sustained by the fact that communities throughout history constructed and maintained their roads, bridges, square, sunk their well for good drinking water supply, and constructed their markets, village churches and village halls by community efforts. Lawal, (2008:56) community development is not new in Nigeria, that what is actually new nowadays in community development are techniques and methods through which new pattern of leadership emerges from the rank and file. Dare, (1989:38) in his own contribution argues that though local government is a veritable vehicle for community development, most local government have not made appreciate impact in this direction. He attributes the problem to the myriad of functions allocated to local government without commensurate financial backing. Ogunna (1980:44) attributed the low performance of local government to the following factors; inadequate revenue, low executive capacity, poor and inadequate working materials, incompetence and ineptitude of existing staff and excessive control by the state government which result in delays and red-tapism. The solution, he suggested, lies in the review of the local government system particularly in areas of financial relationship with the state government and personnel. This control of local government was made clear in the implementation, guideline on the application of the civil service. Reform in the local government service. Okunade, (1988:).expressing his own idea, state that the spread of counties has provided the awareness among rural dwellers, and has provided the existence for a concept of the process of community development and of project which have been set in motion since the United National Organization development its concepts since thirty years ago. Community development draw greater inspiration from the desire for a change and in the ability of man to learn and charge through the voluntary method, (that is, free from coercion) and through the participation of individuals and groups in the development process for the achievement of some definite goals. According to Sehinde, (2008:9) community development is: A process of education by which people of all ages and interest in the community, learn to share their thoughts, their ideas, the participation, their joys and their sorrows and in a large measures to mould and shape the communal destiny for themselves. It is a process of self discovery by the while the people of a community learn to identify and solve their community problems.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study assessment of the impact of local government on rural development
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on assessment of the impact of local government on rural development. 200 staff of Soba and Zaria local government areas in Kaduna state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was on assessment of the impact of local government on rural development. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of local government on rural development
Summary
This study was on assessment of the impact of local government on rural development. Four objectives were raised which included: To assess the impact of Local Government on rural development, to determine the basic principle and techniques necessary for implementing rural development projects, to highlight some of the problems associated with the impact of rural development project like corruption, mis-management and misappropriation and to find out the number of programmes and project implemented towards rural development. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of Soba and Zaria local government areas, Kaduna state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made directors, administrative staffs, senior staffs and junior staffs were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
As submitted by Lele, (1975) even before the wide recognition of the primacy of rural development, governments in all societies have launched various programmes and projects aimed at rural development. However, the extent of rural development varies from state to state. In other hand, the level of development of a society in a measure of the degree of presence or absence of certain infrastructures which could either positively impact or negatively affects the social, political, cultural and economic life of the rural dwellers. It is imperative to note that the provision of social amenities and other facilities are skewed in favour of the urban areas to the detriment of the rural sector/area were majority of the population live.
Recommendation
Having considered the findings from the research, the following measured are recommended for improving the performance of rural development Soba and Zaria local government areas. To bring about a more realistic rural development in Nigeria, specifically Soba and Zaria local government, the local governments should minimize their total dependence on the federal allocation, and increase their efforts towards generating more revenue through the diversification of their internal revenue sources. Again, rural communities in Nigeria, specifically Soba and Zaria local governments areas are no longer seem as recipients of development programmes rather, they are become critical stakeholders that have an important role to play in the management of programmes and projects in their areas. It is also a step towards building their capacities to effectively participate in identifying and responding to rural communities issues and problems toward rural development.
REFERENCES
- Abbas, I.M. (2010.65). State, Class and Management of Local Government in Nigeria,. Kaduna: ABU University Press Limited.
- Abubakar, U. (2004). “The Effect of Local Government Expenditures on Rural Development in Nigeria” The Nigerian Journals of Administrative Studies (2) 1 June,
- Adedeji, A. (1985.5). “Ecology for Economic Change”. Challenge African Development symposium
- Adewumi, J.B (1987). Rural Transformation in Nigeria: DFFRI and Local Government. Institute of Administration A.B.U, Zaria
- Adeyemo, D. O. (2005). Local Government Autonomy in Nigeria: A Historical Perspective, Available from, http//www.localautonomy.org. Ajayi, (2000). Theory and Practice of Local Government Edo Ekiti, UNAD Aknul (2004) Alila (1998).
- Ameh, I.O (2003). “Unique Problem of Local Government” In Denga D. (Ed) Local Government Administration in Nigeria: Past Present and Futuristic Projects. Calabar. Rapid Education Publishers.
- Asika N. (2000) Research Methodology in the Behavioral Science Lagos, Longman Nigeria Plc.
- Bello, I. and Enemuo (1999) Decentralization and LG Models, Principles and Purpose” In Anifowe R. And Enemuo F.C (ed) Element Of Politics
- Bello, I. J.B. (2002) “Financial Transfer” In Bello-Imam J.N (Ed) Local Government Finance in Nigeria CLGARDS University of Ibadan
