ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AS AN INSTRUMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN-EAST GOVERNMENT AREA OF KWARA STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Background to the Study

Local Government in Nigeria started during the colonial era when it was vested in traditional rulers and it operated in a very undemocratic manner. Over the year, efforts have been made to democratize local government and make it more responsible to developmental needs.

Agagu (1997:18), defines local government by the popularly elected bodies charged with administrative and executive duties in matter concerning the inhabitant of a particular district or place.

Lawal (2006:60), sees it as political and administrative unit that is empowered by the law to administer a specific locality. Local government can as well be seen as an authority established by the law which derived its roles, responsibility and right from the National or Federal Constitution which is charged with the satisfaction of the need of people in the local, grassroot or rural areas.

The Local Government which is the third tier of government is the most basic level of the hierarchy in the three tiers of the federal arrangement operated in Nigeria can be seen as a catalyst for community, political, economic and social development. Politically, local government system is expected to bring development closer to the people through popular participation in governance. Socially, the system is supposed to encourage the mass mobilization of human and material resources in order to enhance self-help and community development programmes. Economically, the system is expected to ensure that the fruits of development programmes are evenly distributed with a view to promoting a balanced development throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria.

Hirschman (1958) noted that economic growth and development patterns are scarcely ever spread evenly over the whole areas of a given state but are concentrated at certain points, thus producing a mosaic of regions at different level of prosperity.

Nigeria has continued to experience political decentralization process which has led to the continuing sub-division of the national territory with a view to achieving social justice. The increased statutory allocations to the local government areas is aimed at inducing transformation in terms of the quality and quantity of basic infrastructural facilities  and services being provided by the Local Government Areas (L.G.As) such as roads, water, electricity supply and education, health care and communication services.

Adeyemi (2011), the Alafin of Oyo in his paper “Local Government Administration and Community Development in Nigeria” delivered at the Oyo State Government’s secretariat, Ibadan noted that;

“By their nature, local governments are closest to the people at the community. Their essential services of supplying for table water, maintenance of local health institutions like dispensaries and maternity centre, cleanliness of the locality, supervised by health or sanitary inspectors, provision of health  gadgets  like incinerators, public latrines, supervision and control of markets, and abattoirs, maintenance of local roads, and  courts, the latter for dispensation of Justice under customary laws including the meeting of array of many other items of local needs which these institutions were set up to cater for, and so as toensure the stability of the nation, and by the same contingency, to provide the training of local state men, some of whom would graduate into the state, Federal and National Services-all of which form ultimate in the development in Nigeria political culture, democracy at the dizzy height of its political apex”.

Be that as it may, the importance of Local Government is a function of its ability to generate sense of belonging, Safety and Satisfaction among the community populace. All forms of government regimes or political systems have so far ensured the attainment of this goal. Such strategy for ensuring national administrative development and political efficacy is found in the concept and practice of Local Government. Whatever is the mode of government, local government has been essentially regarded as the path to and guarantor of; integration, administration and development of community.

1. Statement of the Problem

The need to catalyze balanced development, maximize citizens’ participation, and arouse government response necessitates the creation of the local government. The local government serves as a form of political and administrative structure facilitating decentralization, national integration, efficiency in governance, and a sense of belonging at the grassroots. The local government is a unit of administration all over the world (Agagu, 2004).

Local government has been the root of development in terms of dealings with the people which democracy is centred upon. Hence, local government is visibly seen as co-agent of rural development and as partners in progress with both states and federal governments in community developments.

To this end, this study sets out to investigate the roles of local government as an instrument of community development with emphasis on Ilorin-East Local Government Kwara State. Knowing the roles the government needs to play in development of any society and the obvious inability of the national and state governments in the task of rural areas, Local government has been created essentially to compliment the efforts of the states and national government in the task of rural development. Nevertheless, abject poverty and underdevelopment remains a common feature in these rural communities.