THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE WITH FOCUS ON NSIT UBIUM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The political entity known as Nigerian became a Federal State in 1946. The Richardson Constitution provided for a Federal framework dividing the country into three Regional Assemblies and a Central House in 1914. With the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern British protectorates, the Governor-General presided over all the regions for administrative governance.
The history of Local Government Administration dates back to 1920s when the British government headed by Lord Lugard for lack of money and staff, and the need to put in place units of local administration that will be economical and most acceptable to Nigerians, created Local Administrations to be run by the Local rulers as Native Administration. The concept here was to use the indirect rule system of administration where native administrators presided over native courts and settle cases for local people in the rural areas.
Apart from the selfish interest of British in Local Government through indirect rule, at least government was brought closer to the local people. Local government system in Nigeria has been undergoing series of radical changes particularly from an autocratic military system to democratic dispensation in the search for a model that will suit the Nigerian environment and fulfill the yearnings and aspiration of the people.
The local government does not necessarily imply a rural environment alone but human settlement within a large society. Umoren (2000) equates Local government with the government of an area smaller than a country, state, province etc. The importance of local government in rural development cannot be over emphasis because as widely acknowledge, it is viewed “as a viable instrument for rural development and of social services to the people”.
Broadly speaking, one of the most significant reasons for the creation of Local Government has been that of trying to impact on community that may be too far from the centre (Federal or State Level), it is a deliberate effort to bring government nearer to the very door steps of the citizenry (Ephraim 2004:15).
THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE WITH FOCUS ON NSIT UBIUM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE