CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.1 Introduction

In the previous years, most communities were very primitive and undeveloped socially, economically, intellectually, physically and in many other aspects of life. Experiences suggest that a community can hardly be developed without the efforts of the members of that community. According to Kenny (2004) who postulated that a community can develop is members of the community come together to discover their needs and works towards its achievement.

A community development might be initiated by the members of the community, and this will involve  the efforts of the entire community, Ekpat (2008). He added that the development of a community arises as a result  of the imbalance in social amenities such as: health care centre, roads, building of town halls, electricity, water supplies etc. While   agricultural methods of community development involve agricultural co-operatives, agricultural extension services etc.

According to Onuoha (2009), who asserted that many community self-helped projects fails to attain its completion due to inefficiency in monitoring and supervision. It is therefore imperative to evaluate community self-help projects adequately in order to identify those factors that may hinder their completion.

Local government is a political authority set up by a nation or state as sub-ordinate authority for the purpose of dispensing or decentralizing political power. Local government is a political sub-division of regional government, aimed to bring community development to the rural dwellers at the grass root. Rural development is nit a new ideology. it is defined as the process by which the effort of the people  themselves are not  linked with those on government  authorities to improved the economic, social and cultural conditions of the rural residence. The role of local government in the promotion of development reforms emphasized that one of the principles objectives of local government is to mobilize human and materials resources through the involvement of members of the public in the promotion of local government. This actually marked the beginning of the use of local government administration s the agents of development in Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Every local government operates within some sets of constraints such as: mi-management by community leaders, limited funds to develop rural areas, external proposal forced on the people, inadequate working traditional and cultural values, inefficiency in monitoring and supervision corruption among local government officials.

All the above mentioned problems are bound to frustrate the local government efforts at embarking on massive development in the rural areas.

Therefore, from the above discussion, this work is designed as a tool for local government administration in promoting community development. More so, this work shall also attempt to examine problems affecting community development by local government administration.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study are as follows:

1. To examine the impact of local government administrations effort on community development
2. To examine the problems of local government for community development
3. To examine the problems of local government administration effort on community development
4. To suggest strategies for promoting local government administration effort on community development strides

1.4     Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide this research study:

1. What are the impacts of local government in promoting community development?
2. What are the problems associated with the promotion of community development by the local government administration?
3. What are the solutions for enhancing community development in the local government administration:
4. What are the strategies for promoting community development in the local government administration?

1.5     Significance of  the Study

The study is expected to be of significance to different entities in diverse ways:

• The study will help local government administration and revenue officials in evaluating the liability of the projects
• It will serves as a guide to local government administration in monitoring and execution of projects.
• The study will help local government officials to identify the problems militating against successful completion of project in the rural communities.
• The research study will also serve as a reference materials to other researcher seeking for information on the subject.

1.6     Scope/Limitations of the Study

This research study focused on the local government administration as a tool for community development, using Ikot Ekpene Local Government as a case study.

The study was limited by the following factors: