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.