– The Role of Local Government in Rural Socio-economic Development –
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ABSTRACT
This work assesses the role of Local Government in rural development – with Soba Local Government of Kaduna State as case study. Questionnaire and interview are employed in data collection. The study identifies inadequate personnel and finance as the main problems of Local Government in Nigeria.
It is recommended that:
- More qualified personnel should be employed into the Local Government Service while those in the service should be encouraged to acquire higher qualification;
- Favoritism should be discarded in terms of employment, promotion or assigning of duty posts;
- Rural development policy should not be via ad hoc bodies but like the primary health care programme;
- Local Government investment in profitable ventures for increased revenue should be encouraged; and
- More statutory grant from the Federation account should be allocated to the Local Governments for more socio-economic development projects.
INTRODUCTION
The rural sector in Nigeria, and indeed most of those in the developing countries have most often been neglected in terms of the provision of infrastructural facilities. Therefore, the whole idea behind rural development is for the improvement of the economic and Socio-cultural life of the masses. These rural masses are what Dupe Olatunbosun referred to as the “rural majority” who have become the minority in terms of social amenities.
The basic problems of Nigeria’s rural people emanated right for the colonial period. The colonial government actually did nothing to develop rural areas apart from it’s twin objectives of sourcing raw materials and establishing markets for its finished products. In Nigeria, as was the case with other colonized countries, the colonialists did not provide capital funds for increased investment requirements as their export demands were met.
As from 1945 when the second world war ended, the British colonial government in Nigeria did not find it necessary to ensure that a sizeable percentage of the budget allocation goes to the rural areas. Even when over 70% of Nigerians lived in the rural areas, within that period, the little budgetary allocation to the rural sector was underspent and underutilized. Apart from boasting cash -crop production no attempt was made towards improving their living condition.
The so-called marketing boards that were then set up only ended up cheating and siphoning the cash-crops of the rural people through dubious and unjustifiable purchase system. In essence, during the colonial period there were no social amenities enroute meaningful development. With the attainment of independence in 1960, it was expected that the situation would have changed.
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StudentsandScholarship Team.
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