THE IMPACT OF DEMOCRACY ON THE GRASS ROOT DEVELOPMENT
ABSTRACT
The research work centred on ‘’The Impact of Democracy on Grass-Root Development’’ with a case study of Idah Local Government Area of Kogi State. The research work has the objective of examining the extent at which democracy has affected the grassroot development. Primary and secondary method was used for data collection while simple percentage method was used in analyzing the data, the research work has equally find out that the level of department at the grassroot has militated against democracy at the grassroot level with the recommendations that people should be free to exercise their franchise.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The introduction of democratic government into grass root level i.e local government system can be said to have started specifically from the 1960 local government reforms, which made it possible for local government to function as the third tier of government along with federal and state government.
The 1976 local government reforms therefore led to the introduction of grass root democracy into the administration of local government in Nigeria.
By democracy, we mean that the government is for the people, and is being handled by the people for the development of the grass root i.e. for the entire people within the locality.
However, since 1976 to date, there has been no significant improvement in the lives of ordinary citizens despite the proliferation of local governments in the country.
The questions that come to the mind therefore are;
To what extent has democracy affected the grass root level, how does grass roots democracy affect the administration of the local government using Idah local government area as case study, this study seek to investigate the impacts of democracy on the grass root development.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Since the introduction of grass root democracy in to the local government system in Nigeria in 1976, there have been crisis of political wrangling in the affairs of local government to date. This has led many people to believe that democracy is inimical to local government administration. Those who support this assertion argue that, because of the immaturity of the people at the grass root level to differentiate between political and administrative issues, one elected into the council, the politicians always take the local government as personal estates and would like to dabble into issues, which are purely bureaucratic and thus, hamper the efficiency of local government administration as well as grass root development. The excessive politicking in the administration of local government there has made it closely impossible for the local government to achieve the objectives of the 1976 local government reforms.
Taking the above problems into cognizance, this study will therefore seek ways of ensuring stable democracy for grass root development.
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