The Role of Local Government In Rural Development Issues

Journal of Political Science, 2014

The paper examines the role of local government in the rural development of Benue State. In the attempt to do this, clarification of concepts like rural area and rural development were carried out which formed the theoretical basis of the analysis. Primary and secondary data formed the sources of data collection for the study. The primary data were obtained via questionnaire, oral interview and observation. However, textbook, internet and government documents formed secondary source of information of the study. It was discovered that efforts made through several strategies adopted over the years in the nation did not bring about meaningful rural development. It was also discovered that a number of issues such as under-funding, incessant conflict, corruption and top-bottom, rather than bottom-up approach, among others led to the failure of rural development efforts. The study therefore concludes among other things that for rural development to take place bottom-up approach to rural development be adopted. The local governments should look inward for internally generated revenue, corruption and mismanagement should be checked through anti-corruption agencies. Above all, local government staff should be well supervised, coordinated, motivated and encouraged for better performance; and finally, local government should be given political financial and administrative authority.

Kaduna Journal of Political Science, 2014

The paper examines the role of local government in the rural development of Benue State. In the attempt to do this, clarification of concepts like rural area and rural development were carried out which formed the theoretical basis of the analysis. Primary and secondary data formed the sources of data collection for the study. The primary data were obtained via questionnaire, oral interview and observation. However, textbook, internet and government documents formed secondary source of information of the study. It was discovered that efforts made through several strategies adopted over the years in the nation did not bring about meaningful rural development. It was also discovered that a number of issues such as under-funding, incessant conflict, corruption and top-bottom, rather than bottom-up approach, among others led to the failure of rural development efforts. The study therefore concludes among other things that for rural development to take place bottom-up approach to rural development be adopted. The local governments should look inward for internally generated revenue, corruption and mismanagement should be checked through anti-corruption agencies. Above all, local government staff should be well supervised, coordinated, motivated and encouraged for better performance; and finally, local government should be given political financial and administrative authority.

Caleb International Journal of Development Studies , 2022

This paper examines how the operation of State-Local Government Joint Account affects the impact of local government, in executing rural development programmes at the grassroots. The intention of the constitution is to forge cooperation between the state and local governments in managing efficiently local government allocations from Federation Account for the benefit of local people, but reports and agitation of the people on nature of operation of the account proves otherwise. For the purpose of contributing towards the reform of the operation of the account, the paper examines the nature of the operation of the account in some selected states, evaluates the effects of the operation on the local government impacts on rural development, and identifies ways of improving the operation of the account to achieve its objectives. In the process, descriptive analysis method was adopted in examining the available secondary data. However, the findings indicate that the state governments manipulate the account to the disadvantage of local governments. Also, most local governments are unable to contribute significantly to rural development activities because of paucity of funds. Therefore, the paper recommends way out to improve the operation of the account, instead of abolishing it, through effective budgeting; compliance, monitoring, and enforcement by Community Development Associations (CDAs); and prevention of mismanagement and diversion of funds by Anti-corruption agencies.

International Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2014

This study examined Local Government Administration and Rural Development in Enugu State, Nigeria under Sullivan I. Chime"s administration, 2007-2015. The source of information for this study is secondary source. Three research questions and three objectives guided this study. The general objective of the study is the relationship between the local government administration and rural development in Enugu State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were: to assess the role of the local government administration in rural development in Enugu State, to investigate whether job creation and provision of infrastructures by the government led to decline in rural-urban migration and to find out the relationship between governments budgetary allocation and rural development in Enugu State.

This work assesses the roles of local government in rural socioeconomic development of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area. From the problems stated, it is discovered that despite the development programmes like Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution, free and compulsory primary education and low cost housing schemes, the level of development in Igbo-Eze South Local Government is still stagnated. The aim of the study is to examine the roles of Local Government Council in rural socioeconomic development in Igbo-Eze South Local Government, so as to increase the standard of living of people in the area, while the objectives of the study were broad and specific, which gears to determine the extent to which Local Government implements socioeconomic projects designed to alleviate the backward condition of the rural people. The main research methodology used was primary source of data collection, in which information is gotten from the field survey. From the findings of the study, the major constraint of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Council towards rural development is the inadequacy of finance of the local government to implement various development projects. From the study it is recommended that Local Government should be oriented or even directed to know the value of investment as means of revenue generation in solving problem like inadequate finance, thereby reducing their dependency on state and federal government for the development of rural areas.

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ABUJA MUNICIPAL AREA COUNCIL OF FCT, 2018

The locus of this is study the role of local government in rural development in Abuja Municipal Area Council of FCT. The survey sets out to specifically examine the strategies that are employed by AMAC to bring about rural development and the extent t o which AMAC involves the rural dwellers in its rural development activities. Two hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed to both the staff members of AMAC and the rural settlers in AMAC. The study found that AMAC has not faired well in some areas of rural development, especially in area of health service delivery. This is so as the respondents disclosed that many rural communities in AMAC don't have health care and dispensary centres. And the ones that are established in some rural settlements are eyesore and are in rickety state with characteristics lack of qualified medical personnels and medical facilities. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that AMAC administration has inspired rural development in AMAC by providing portable and accessible water to the rural people therein. The study uncovered that the rural people are not given the privilege to participate in the process of the development programmes that are meant to benefit them. This explains why many of the projects that government brings to them are not sustainable. The study has been able to reveal that AMAC has not done much to inspire agricultural activities of the rural people. This explains why they are not getting good reward for their agricultural activities. Consequently, this work recommends that AMAC administration should employ more medical staff such as doctors, nurses, laboratory experts to man the hospitals in the rural areas.

Research Journal of Finance and Accounting, 2014

The creation of the State Joint Local Government Account System (SJLGAS) by section 162 of the 1999 Federal Constitution of Nigeria was meant to facilitate rural development of the local Communities through effective supervision of the distribution and efficient management of revenue accruing to the local government councils from the federation account. The research study through historical approach and survey method discovered that, rather than being a vehicle that should drive rural development, the State Joint Local Government Account system has served as a means of making unnecessary deductions from revenue accruing to the local government councils from federation Account to the coffers of state governments in Nigeria. It was in the light of huge cry by local government administrators in Nigeria that this research was carried out. The sample size consist of four hundred and eighty (480) employees(Treasurers and Heads of Personnel Management) of Local Government Councils drawn from 240 local government councils inside 24 out of 36 States in Nigeria. The Study utilizes both primary and secondary data. Tables and percentages were used for the analysis. The Chi-Square test was used to analyse the hypotheses. The research finding shows that excessive and unwanted deductions of fund from the Local Government Statutory allocations from Federation Account by State Governments in Nigeria through the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC), improper management of finance and endemic corruption in the local government administration in Nigeria, have made rural sustainable development a mirage. The study therefore concluded that the present method adopted in the JAAC system in Nigeria encourages deduction of funds by State Government. Hence the Local Government do not have as much resources as they are given from Federation Account for rural development. The research therefore recommended the granting of financial autonomy to the local government councils through the amendment of conflicting clauses or provisions in the Constitution that created the Joint Account System and the empowerment of the anti-graft agencies in Nigeria to supervise the administrators of Local government councils and financial managers on monthly basis. This will bring about responsibility accounting and thus rural development will be enhanced.

ABSTRACT Local government administration as a panacea for rural transformation in Nigeria has its own historical background. Its emergence as a bureaucratic establishment is regarded as a Western innovation, therefore alien. Though, the various political communities prior to the formation of an entity called Nigeria had their own native administrative system which eventually became labeled by the colonial administrators as traditional political system. This posture is viewed as discriminatory of the culture of the various ethnic groups. The importance attached to this third tier system of governance has warranted its unrivalled reforms to make it more effective and result-oriented in terms of meeting the objectives for which it was established. Local government in Nigeria has acquired renewed significance in the nation’s social, political and economic existence since 1976 when the local government was overwhelmed at instance of the federal military government. But that time, Nigeria local government system consist a variety of forms as local government was regarded as residual matter, in the constitution sharing of functions between the federal and regional government.

International Review of Administrative Sciences, 1984

Public Affairs and Infoscience Research Journal, 2020

This study has undertaken a critical evaluation of the challenges facing the local government revenue in Nigeria. With the application of descriptive survey design as the methodology using content analysis, the study has revealed that the abysmal performance of the local government in terms of rural development was premised on the poor revenue often gotten by the local government, especially the internally sourced revenue. Other challenges identified include corruption among revenue collecting officers among other things. Anchored on Structural Functionalism theory, the study showed that the local government being part of the society which exists as a structure with interrelated parts, with each structure performing role functions has not achieved enough in terms of rural development because of structural dysfunctionalsim. It was found that the revenue base of the local government can be improved through the collective responsibilities of all stakeholders. This study therefore recommends among other things that local governments in Nigeria should endeavour to exploit fully its extant internal revenue sources as approved by laws.