Local Government and the Challenges of Community and Rural Development in Nigeria: the Way Forward

One major index of social change and development today is indeed rural development. No nation can boast of having achieved development if a large percentage of her rural inhabitants are still wallowing under abject poverty, want and adepth in socio-economic penury. However, in Nigeria, empirical evidence shows that underdevelopments have continued to wage on as people are either ignorant of, or indifferent to the reasons for which local governments are created. This paper examines the impact of local government on community and rural development in Nigeria, challenges and the way forward. To scientifically and analytically interrogate the issues raised, the paper traversed conceptualizations and theoretical terrain; utilizing system and rural development theories. Yet, because of the dearth of data, it did content analysis of 466 newspapers and magazines in Nigeria published between 2007 and 2011, to determine people‟s feelings about the local governments‟ development efforts in communities. It is the position of this paper that the creation of local government in most cases were not based on viability and developmental purposes as required by the constitution but on administrative conveniences to score cheap political goals and legitimacy especially by the military rulers. The paper concludes that while the basic rationale behind the creation of local government is to meet the peculiar needs of the people at the grassroots, it is however pathetic to note that local government has demonstrated incompetence in this regard. Given the catalogue of challenges facing local government, it recommends among other measures, that while local government should remain as a third tier of government, it should be given more powers, resources and enabling environment for the development of localities.