Local Government And Rural Development

INTRODUCTION
There is universal acceptance of local government as a vital instrument for rural and urban developments, irrespective of the ideological differences of societies and levels of development.
Accordingly, Alhaji Abubakar Rim put it aptly:
Local government is the most important government of our land. It is the nearest and most immediate government for the man. The man in my village does not know who the president is, he does not even care who the governor of Kano is… He cares only about those who are councilors and chairman of his local government. (Constituent Assembly; 1978:994).
One of the major reasons for establishing Local Government is to bring government to the local communities so that the local people can participate fully in the process of governance, in order to provide essential local services and thus speed up the pace of social, economic and political development (Ogunna, 1996). Following this fundamental purpose of local government, the Guidelines on the 1976 Local Government reforms makes community participation imperative on Local Government. The principal objectives of the Reform as provided by the Guidelines were to:
(a) make appropriate services and development activities responsive to local wishes and initiative by devolving and delegating them to local representative bodies;
(b) facilitate the exercise of democratic self-government close to the local levels of our society, and to encourage initiative and leadership potential;
(c) mobilize human and material resources through the involvement of members of the public in their local development;
(d) provide a two-way, channel of communication between local communities and government (both state and federal).
Consequently, nations have been battling for the establishment of viable local government that will bring both government and development nearer to the people.
However, the role of local government as a developmental intermediary between the grass root people in the national scheme of things is diminishing at alarming rate. Investigation conducted so far, attributes it to lack of accountability by operators of the system, corruption and present global economic melt down.
But as a government widely acknowledged as a viable instrument for delivery of essential services to the people, anything that, affects its smooth operation will definitely affect adversely, the lives of the citizenry. That is why, we are calling for government-community participation in development projects.
As Onah (1999) has rightly pointed out, government-community participation in execution of rural development projects is not new in Nigeria. This has been demonstrated in communities building schools and government providing the teachers and equipments. Communities are also known to have participated in building health centres, providing rural electricity, pipe-born water and constructing roads. These are even sometimes carried out by communities unaided. Nnadozie (1986) quoted in Onah (1999) was of the view that communities providing development projects for themselves was the process through which the people lived and improved their lot before contact was made with the colonial powers.
Definitely, the management of these community projects or services is as important as their provision. Proper management of rural development projects would ensure that they provide the expected services efficiently and also have a long life span. Having said this, the question then arises:
1. Under what framework and institutions can government-community participation take place?
2. What are the different forms or strata of community participation in development projects?
3. What are the benefits of government-community participation in execution of development projects?
4. What are the obstacles to effective government-community cooperation in rural development projects?
5. What ware the prospects for improved government-community cooperation in the management of rural development projects?
This paper, will, therefore, attempt to find answers to the above questions.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Local government have and will continue to be one of the prime mores of development in different parts of the world and their importance and impact on daily activities of citizens cannot be over emphasized.
The terms local government refers to a political authority set up by a nation or state as a subordinate authority for the purposes of dispensing or decentralizing polities power. In the English sense, it means local self government.
Local government is a political sub-division of a national government, or in federal system, a sub-division of regional government in fact, local government administration is so intentioned with local government and rural development in Nigeria that any discussion on one out of necessity involves the other. This is because local government in essence, was created solely to bring development to the communities at the grass root.
Local government and rural development in Nigeria is not a new ideology. It is defined as a process by which the efforts of the people themselves are linked with those of governmental authorities to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities, to integrate them into life of the action, and to enable them to contribute fully to the national progress. Also the role of local government in the promotion of development at the local level is clearly recognized as one of the underlying basis of the 1976 local government reforms which emphasized that none of the principal objectives of local government is to mobilize human and material resources through the involvement of members of the public in the promotion of local government
Many communities had built school, constructed roads and bridges, and organized higher education, scholarship schemes for their children etc. local government and rural development in Nigeria as we recognize today is based on and has grown out of experience of the past. What is new is that these principles are now becoming more widely recognize than ever before. The principles of local government and rural development in Nigeria are not new, but it is the emphasis which makes almost a revolutionary. The concept of local government and rural development in Nigeria is based on the faith. In the ability of people to learn how to help themselves attain an improved standard of living building better communities taking one step at a time.
Rural development has thus remained op the priority item o the programmes of the administration. In drawing up the blue print for rural development, government of Eket local aims primary at sensitizing and mobilizing the people at the grass roots level and deliberately and actively involving them in effective local government and rural development in Nigeria , encouraging, integrated and multi-dimension approach to local government and rural development in Nigeria for the government to achieve the grass roots development, it must get closer to the people. Local government and rural development in Nigeria groups and local government should work very closely, because for instance, a service project such as maternity dispensary or school which is built without the full support of the relevant local government , has very lean chances of survival, since the running and main tenancy expenses of such services are usually too heavy to be borne unaided b such community.

ORGANIZATION OF EKET LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Eket Urban council was created in 1976. then in 991 Eket and south local government was carried out of the main/former Eket local local government area.
The council is consist of six (6) major departments personnel; health; works; financial; agriculture; and education and development. The council is made up of two sets of staff.
The executive and the carrier officers. At the apex of the organization, the chairman is the chief executive and the controller of both men and materials including finances.
Below him is the vice chairman who assists and co-ordinate the activities delegated to him from time to time. Below their levels are the four line supervisors charged of agric, health, education, local government and rural development in Nigeria and works respectively. Both the chairman and the supervisors are the policy maker as far as the council is concerned.
On the other hand, the local government service commission is the employer of all carrier officers 9civl servants ) under this local government system. At the apex of the carrier officers is the secretary director of personnel who is in charged of the day to day administration. Below him is a deputy secretary who co-ordinate the activities of both senior and the junior staff including other functions in his schedule. The internal auditor occupies a central position midway between the carrier officers and the executive chairman.
He is the alarm clock of the council especially when the envisages that anything goes wrong with the expenditure of government fund. He may raise an audit alarm. Below this levels are the line carrier staff known as heads of department. Each occupying specific department such as agric, 1-6 above. Each H.O.D maintains discipline within his area, check the attendant and roll call and distribute functions amongst the rank and file senior and junior staff under him.

STATUTORY / COMMTTEE:
In local government there are some operative statutory committee charged with specific functions:
a. The junior staff management committee with a chairman and secretary. This organ is charged with discipline, promotion, transfer and conversion of junior staff under grade level 01-06
b. F and a: This is an organ responsible for monetary approval and expenditure above to N500,000.00 to N1m.
the executive chairman acts as the chairman while the local government secretary acts as his secretary.
Local government and rural development in Nigeria is a department solely charged with co-ordination development activities in various community between the councils area of jurisdiction
However, the department cannot carryout or execute its functions departments or units within the council for example, local government and rural development in Nigeria as a department heeds funds which must be raised and released by the finance department from its internally generated revenue sources. In addition, for a community project to be implemented the survey and planning department must be carried out his own specific duties in town planning and market designs, so also road works and maintenance, building of markets, as well as agricultural development cannot succeed without the works department engineers and agric officers. Health is one of the major premise of local government and rural development in Nigeria functions.

1.2 STATEMENTS OF PROBLEMS.
Our understanding in this study is to investigate and appraise to what extent the local government council as represented by Eket local government area of Eket local , has been and to mobilize human ad material resources for development of its area of authority. In line with the of 1976 local government reforms.
The researcher will also in this course of this study to find answers to the following problems.
a. To what extents has the local government and rural development in Nigeria objectives of the present local government system been realized in Eket local government area.
b. To what extent has the local government approach to local government and rural development in Nigeria facilitated the realization of the reforms, including the present military government rural development objectives?
c. is there not a better alternative to the local government current attitude to local government and rural development in Nigeria ?
The above questions are closely interlinked and will be my guide to conduct this appraisal work and suggest some possible solutions where necessary.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1. The essence of local government is to bring about sustained development at the grass root level.
2. To find effective ways of stimulating teaching and helping people to adopt new methods and to learn new skills.
3. To ensure the preservative of the community spirit.
4. To find out it there are wider political representation
5. To determine if there are cheaper service
6. Establishing a good base for the collecting of basic statistical information necessary for economic planning.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THW STUDY
The local state government will be able to apply the out come of the study in their functions. The people that will benefit from the study are the staff of Eket local government and the people ie villages of Eket local government . Thos system should be encourage in other to achieve the goals and objective of the study especially in the area of local government and rural development in Nigeria

1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In the course of carrying out the research the following research questions were formulated.
1. What is the relevance of revenue and expenditure to local government in Nigeria.
2. What are the implications of this revenue to the administration of local government.
3. To what extent is the derivation principle been applied to revenue and expenditure pattern of local government.
4. How can constitutional provision create problem in the application of revenue sharing formula to local government administration.
5. How can Nigeria evolve an appropriate revenue and expenditure pattern of local government.
In the course of developing this research work the following hypothesis have been formulated.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research work is aimed at studying of the efforts of local government towards local government and rural development in Nigeria in Eket local

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
It is therefore, pertinent to point out that because of time, space or distance, and financial constraints, the study is limited only to Eket local government area. This scope is justified by the fact that it is practically impossible for the researcher to take into this study all efforts made towards local government and rural development in Nigeria in the country. The difficulties that were over come during the process of this research work are:
1. Time constraints, the problem of time was not to the advantage of the researcher and thus did not allow for more comprehensive study of this piece

DEFINITION OF TERMS
The terms defined here under are based on context of this research work.
ROLE: The expected function in terms of services to be rendered by local bodies actions of the local government geared towards rural development.
GOVERNMENT; The authorized or legitimate body of people or group of people in the society who make and enforce law on behalf of the people
RURAL: That under development part of the society or country whose dwellers do not have and infrastructure, and do not adequately reach the government.
DEVELOPMENT: Development should be viewed in terms of qualitative provision and improvement in the living standards of the majority of people in a particular area., There should be in terms of making available most of the necessary infrastructural facilities like good drinking water, good roads, medical facilities educational facilities and access to these amenities.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT: The expediency for the creation of local government anywhere in the world stems from the need to facilitate development at the grassroots. The importance of local government is a function of its ability to generate sense of belongingness, safety and satisfaction among its 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, national integration, administration and development.