Influence of Citizens’ Participation on Communitiy Development in Bonny Local Government Area, Rivers State

The study investigated Influence of citizens’ participation on community development in Bonny local government area, Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive survey design, two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The population of the study comprised forty (40) leaders and three hundred and seventy (370) members in 4 communities in Bonny local government area, Rivers State. The sample size for the study comprised four hundred and ten (40 leaders, and 370 members) respondents. The entire population was used as a census due to its manageable size. The instrument titled “Influence of Citizens Participation on Community Development Questionnaire “(ICPCDQ)†was used for data collection. The ICPCDQ questionnaire was structured using the four point Likert rating scale response pattern of Strongly Agree (SA) = 4points, Agreed (A)= 3points, Disagree (D) = 2points, and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1point. The researcher employed the face and content validity methods and established a reliability of the instrument through the test-retest technique. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient Statistics was used to arrive at a reliability index of 0.80. Mean and standard deviation statistics were used to answer the research questions, while Z-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study found among others, that leaders and members agreed that citizens’ participation in planning school building projects influence community development in Port Harcourt Local Government Area, Rivers State; there is no significant difference in the mean responses of leaders and members of community-based organization on ways citizens’ participation in monitoring and evaluation of rural road projects influences community development in Bonny Local Government Area, Rivers State. It was concluded that the participation of citizens in community development such as school buildings and road construction influenced community development. It was recommended among others that government and development agencies engaged in building schools in rural community should engage citizens actively in the projects as this will build their capacities and confidence to engage in other community development programme/projects themselves