Rural Development: Problem and Prospects in Local Government

Experience has however shown that most local

government councils have woefully failed to do that.

Certain reasons account for this state of affairs,

among which are: in many instances those who do

not reside permanently in the local government areas

are either appointed or "elected" into local

government Councils, hence they are out of tune with

the existing conditions in their supposed locality;

most of the "elected" local government officials

administer Odukpani local government area from

Calabar, the state capital. In fact, the Chairman of

Council and most of the Councillors and Council

workers reside in Calabar and its fringes.

6. Lack of requisite infrastructure: Some rural

communities are yet to enjoy such facilities as roads,

markets, electricity, basic health services, extension

services rural banking, and co-operative societies,

etc. The existence of such functional infrastructure in

the rural areas would among others: check the

migration of rural dwellers to the urban centres. The

establishment of cottage and craft industries, which

would provide employment for would-be migrants;

encourage private sector investments in the rural

communities and, enhance the rapid urbanization

of some rural settlements in the country, are

dependent on the provision of adequate

infrastructure.

7. Lack of or inadequate feasibility studies before

projects are undertaken. It is not an over statement to

argue that most rural development programme fail

because the policy makers did not carry out on the

necessary feasibility studies on problem situations

and its possible remedies. The poor results often

recorded are accentuated by apparent definitional

problems of the situations on ground. Problem

clearly defined is problem half solved, and a good

feasibility study conducted at the outset is a sine- qua

- non.

8. Skyrocketing rate of inflation in Nigeria has affected

the costs of the projects. This sometimes results in the

abandonment of ongoing/approved projects by some

delivering agencies, if the initial values of the projects

are not reviewed.

9. Wrong choice of communication channel to reach the

target population. For instance, the erstwhile

MAMSER, and its successor, the National Orientation

Agency, to a large extent adopted the use of Radio,

Television and Newspapers, as her major media to

get to the rural dwellers. This however, impacted

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