CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
Nigeria since political independence has been engaging
in rural development projects ranging from health to roads which are executed
in rural settlements by the local government. Local
government according to Adeojo (2003) is the bedrock for rural transformation. Barry
and Goldman (2000) stated that the idea of local government was
born out on the need to bring government closer to the people as a mechanism to
engender good governance at the grassroots level. Sharing a similar view, Ogunna
(1996) reported that the reasons for establishing local government is to bring
good governance in the rural areas so that local people can participate fully
in the process of governance, to provide essential local services and speed up
the pace of socio-economic and political development. Section 7
of the 1999 Constitution guaranteed a system of local government on democratic
principle, and stipulates that one of the functions of local government council
is to participate in the development of their area (Abbas
and Ahmad, 2012).
Democracy and good governance most
especially at the local government level are preconditions for economic development
of the rural area (Adesina, 2002).
Over 80 percent of the habitants of the rural areas
are primarily engaged in farming and produces more than 70 percent of the food consumed in Nigeria.
Despite the contributions of the rural people to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), development of the rural areas has not been given the deserved attention.
As a consequence, rural people suffer untold hardships; they have been
described as ”Nigeria’s
neglected rural majority” and the “stagnant sector” in the Nigerian economy
(Anthonio, 1967). Rural people constitute the neglect poor with high level of
poverty and poor standard of living (Ijere, 1981).
Many assistance organizations emphasize
poverty reduction as an important international assistance goal. The number of
organizations which focus on rural development as a way to reduce poverty has
grown with the realization that most impoverished groups live in rural areas.
The major international trends for poverty reduction and rural development
include: The World Summit for Social
Development held in Copenhagen
in 1995 declared the goal to reduce absolute poverty in the world by half
through people-centred social development. As a result of this conference, the
goal of reducing the ratio of the
poor by half between1990 to 2015 was
adopted at the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) High Level Meeting of Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) in 1996. In addition, the UN General Assembly
(Millennium Summit) in 2000 promoted this effort as one of its Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), with the World Bank and IMF also promoting the
target.
Other organizations engaging in rural
development include Asian Development
Bank (ADB) which is shifting its development assistance focus to
fighting poverty and the World Bank is developing a new strategy for rural
development in addition to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). The Department for International Development
(DFID) in the United
Kingdom adopted the sustainable livelihood
concept as an alternative development approach to existing rural development
and for effective anti-poverty programs. Moreover, most NGOs regard rural
development as an effective in reducing poverty and have expanded their
activities to include remote rural areas such as areas in Southeast
Asia. Community participation has been recognized as an essential
asset in the promotion of the independence of local people with many
organizations implementing multi-sectored activities based on local conditions,
such as activities in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries as well as in non-agricultural
income generation, education, health care and hygiene or infrastructure
improvement.
There were many innovative models of rural
development in Nigeria which includes Directorate for Food Road and Rural
Infrastructure (DFRRI); River Basin Development Authorities (REDAS); Industrial Development Corporation (IDC);
Rural Banking Scheme (RBS) Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN); National Directorate
of Employment (NDE); Better Life for Rural Women (BLRW); Community Banking
Programme (CBP); Family Support Programme {FSP); Family Economic Advancement
Programme (FEAP); National Economic
Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS); Anambra State Economic Empowerment
and Development Strategy (ASEEDS). These programmes of development yield little
or no benefits to rural dwellers. That may be the reason Olaniwola and Adeleye
(2005:9) assumed that rural people have benefited little from most of these
rural development programmes.
The
government of Anambra
State put in place a
unique approach to rural development known as Anambra Integrated Development
Strategy (ANIDS) to meet up with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS). The
aim of this development strategy is to solve the problems of development in
rural areas in Anambra
State.
Any
programme of development, especially in a Federal State
must take cognizance of the existence of Local Government Council. According to
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999:6) every local
government in the country shall participate in economic planning and
development of its own area of jurisdiction. To strengthen this task bestowed
on the local government, General Ibrahim Babangida, reminded Nigerians that
local government were not created to pay salaries only, but to ensure
collective participation in governance, motivate physical and economic
development opportunities and provide social services which can improve the
well being of the rural people (Oyarbaire and Olagunju 1998:49). Rural
development is mainly the role of local government because it is the government
at the grassroots level.
The
ability of local government to carry out its function of development depends on
the availability of fund to the local government. That may be the reason why
Adedeji (1969:96) says that the success or failure of any local government depends
on the financial resources available to it.
In
Anambra State
the government made use of care-taker committee because there was absence of
democratically elected government at the grassroots level in Anambra State
during Obi Administration. According to Lele (1975:20) rural development means
improving the living standards of the masses of low income residing in rural
areas, and making the process of their development self-sustaining. As far as
government makes effort to alleviate poverty at the grassroots level, there
must be a good relationship with the local government council and the state
government.
Unfortunately
during the Obis administration, there was no democratically elected government
at the grassroots and this might constitute problem to development efforts of
state government. The rural dwellers in
Anambra state are mostly farmers who work in the farm from morning till evening
to provide food cheaply to the city dwellers. Many rural areas in the state
have built schools through self-help efforts but most of the schools lack
necessary aids like writing desk, well equipped science laboratory etc. In Anambra State, there are efforts to alleviate
the plight of the rural poor that is the reason for the introduction of various
development programmes such as State Economic Empowerment and Development
Strategy (SEEDS).
The
overall objective of all these programmes of development initiated by the
government is to bridge the glaring gap between the urban and rural areas in
terms of infrastructure, resource distribution, human resource development and
employment. It is worthy of note that these programmes of development yield
little or no dividends to the rural dwellers due to various challenges facing
rural development which include inadequate finance, lack of autonomy of the
local government, lack of democratically elected government at the grassroots,
insecurity, etc. However, local government in Anambra State
engaged in development of infrastructures, human resource development and
employment, unfortunately, some of the projects embarked upon by the local government
were not completed and seems to have been abandoned. For example Nodu street road in Awka South was not
completed. The expected development which local government were expected to
foster in the rural areas now suffers. Thus, there is a genuine need for an
objective academic exploration and evaluation of local government and rural
development in Anambra
State with the primary
goal of offering a useful and workable solution.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In Nigeria about
80% of the entire population reside in rural areas (Ogbazi, 1998:20). These
rural dwellers are mainly peasant farmers who find it difficult to feed and to
provide most basic necessities of livelihood to their immediate families. The
level of poverty among rural dwellers in Nigeria is eloquent testimony to
the need for development of the rural environment. This situation was incident
to identified problems, which include infrastructure, peasant and subsistence
agriculture, poor network of roads, low commercial activities lack of food
preservation facilities and erosion menace (Anambra State Government 1986:9).
Olamilekan
(2006:13) was not comfortable with the interventions over the local government
financial operations by the higher level of government. According to him the
control of the revenue accruing to local governments by both federal and state
government was not indicative of a genuine desire to straighten the local
governments and to meet the high expectations of the people. Anambra state since its creation has
experienced a chequered political history which disrupted the structure and
functioning of the body politics and further hindered effective delivery of
public goods and services. The state is making enormous efforts to wriggle her
out of the intricate web of infrastructural decay. Despite huge budgetary allocation to the
state and enormous natural resources in the state, Anambra state is still far
from meeting the demands and expectations of its citizens. All the programmes
of development embraced by the government yield little or no dividends to the
citizens. The state is still lacking in the areas: infrastructural facilities,
good road networks, adequate water, access roads in rural areas and hinterland,
healthcare services, transportation services, rural electrification etc.
Various programmes of
development initiated by successive government has problem of effective
implementation. That may be the reason why Onah (2006:40) highlighted that, “the question that face Nigerian leaders has not been whether to plan or
not, but what kind of development plan to adopt in dealing decisively with the problem of widespread poverty, large scale
unemployment, technologically backwardness, low-capacity utilization, inadequate and decayed social and physical
infrastructure, illiteracy, urban congestion, short-life expectancy, excessive
debt burden, high incidence of diseases and environmental degradation”. Given the above premise, this study seeks answers to the following
questions
1.3. Research Questions
- What are the challenges
of rural development in Anambra
State?
- Has the local government
been playing the constitutional roles of developing the grassroots in Anambra
state?
- Are there some effects
of non-democratically elected government at the local government on grassroots development
in Anambra State?
- What are the possible solutions
to the problems of rural development by local government in Anambra State?
1.4. Objectives of the Study
The
broad objective of the study was to investigate local government and rural
development in Anambra
State: 2006 – 2014. The specific
objectives are to:
i
identify the challenges of rural
development in Anambra State;
ii
investigate whether the local governments have been playing the constitutional roles of developing the
grassroots in Anambra state;
iii
ascertain the effects of non-democratically elected government at the local
government on grassroots development in Anambra State; and to
iv suggest possible solutions to the problems of rural development by local government in Anambra State.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ANAMBRA STATE 2006 2014
