LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY OF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES: A STUDY OF UNICEF-ASSISTED PROGRAMMES/PROJECTS IN SELECTED STATES OF NORTHERN NIGERIA: 1996 — 2004
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY OF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES: A STUDY OF UNICEF-ASSISTED PROGRAMMES/PROJECTS IN SELECTED STATES OF NORTHERN NIGERIA: 1996 — 2004
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Date
2006-11
Authors
BELLO, OHIANI
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Abstract
This study is an attempt to find out why some focus local
governments failed to sustain the UNICEF-assisted programmes handed
over to them over in January 1996. In answering this question we focused
attention on the role of the local government top functionaries (Chairmen,
Councillors, Secretaries and Heads of Departments) otherwise referred to in
this work as the local governing elites and State government functionaries.
Our argument throughout the study is that the self-serving interests of these
local and State elites were largely responsible for the failure of the local
governments to sustain the UNICEF-assisted programmes. To pursue this
argument, we were guided by Political Power Theory, which says
government policies, decisions and actions are reflections of and dictated by
the self-serving interests of policy makers and administrators who constitute
the governing elites local and state level. Data for the study were generated
through administering of questionnaires, interviews, focus-group discussions
and extraction of secondary information in the benefiting communities, the
focus local governments and the four state government ministries and
agencies responsible for local government matters as well as the Bauchi and
Kaduna Zonal Offices of the UNICEF. The data so generated were helpful in
testing three hypothesis. The hypotheses were confirmed. The study further
pg. 7
revealed that even though the focus local governments failed to involve the
target communities in their activities, the communities were full of
initiatives to help themselves in providing some basic social amenities with
little or no support from the local governments. It was also revealed that
democracy at local government level has not changed the attitude of local
government top functionaries toward
(a) Resource management (it is business as usual),
(b) Service delivery (always handled with levity) and
(c) People’s participation in local governance (which is never taken
seriously. Local governments are converted to personal estates, of the top
functionaries with the active collaboration of State government officials
responsible for supervisory functions.
It is therefore, recommended that:
a) Section 7(i) of the Constitution o the Federal Republic of Nigeria
(1999) be amended to give local governments the autonomy they
deserve.
b) Local governments should be given the opportunity to participate
identifying their needs, planning and physical implementation of donor
agency programmes to be able to takeover and sustain them eventually.
pg. 8
c) Benefiting communities too should be empowered and given the
chance to participate in planning programmes provided for them by
outside bodies for the same reason as in (b) above.
d) There is a dire need for further investigation/study into local
government and intergovernmental relations in Nigeria to determine the
extent of autonomy local governments should enjoy to serve as
instrument of sustainable development.
Description
Being a Ph.D Dissertation in the Department of Political Science
Submitted to the Postgraduate School in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) at
the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
NOVEMBER, 2006
Keywords
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, SUSTAINABILITY, DEVELOPMENT, PROGRAMMES, UNICEF-ASSISTED, NORTHERN NIGERIA