THE IMPACT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT A CASE STUDY OF UYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROJECT TOPIC

THE IMPACT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT A CASE STUDY OF UYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Local governments are separate entities established by the government in order to respond to the needs of the local people under such administration.

Local government is the closet tier of government of the people in Nigeria. Many Nigerians crave for change in the local government system as presently constructed in order not to only bring it in conformity with present clap realities. The reasons for the creation of local government are to promote peace and harmony among the tiers of government which are the federal, state and local government, political participation and parties’ local government are assigned statutory specific functions and monthly allocations from the federation account.  local government where also created to save as a conduct, Which their government policies are recommunicated to the people, (Aigbakoba & Ogboma, 2004). Defined local government as the government of local level. Similarly within the circumference of local government realities, 1979, 1989, and 1999 constitution of federal republic of Nigeria encapsulated and provided the constitutional and therefore legal framework, the 1976 constitution consolidated the gains made by the 1976 reform when it recognized the existence of local government.

In Nigeria, local government administration can be traced to the pre-colonial times. During this period local government was performed and carried out through the instrumentalities’ of traditional authorities, (Emezi 2002).

Community development on the other hand is a process where-by communities come together to perform various functions in order to give a face-lift to their immediate environment or communities, because each community is case study, so that that know their felt need better than the government.

Emezi, (1999), simply defines community development as “efforts provided for advancement of communities. He stated that the major emphasis of the concept was upon those activities, which aim at promoting the improvement of the basic condition of the community’s non-material needs.

Griffiths (2004), community development has primary objectives which are to promote, to sustain to support and maintain community action. What this means in concrete term is that such action is bound to lead to improving the economic, social and psychological well-being of the community.

Tomasetti (2005) claimed that community development embraces three separate concepts;

• In the first concept, community development is regarded as nothing more than the sort of rural and urban development programmes which most government have, that include expansion of health, education and other social facilities, enlargement of roads and other communication net-works, market, agriculture and adult education classes. Once community is developed, the individuals, groups and the nation will witness development. The focus of those works is to assess the role of local government councils in community development in Akwa Ibom State.
• The second concept is derived from the view that people who live in any contiguous settlement are a community and life will improve if ties of sentiment between these people are strengthened.