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THE IMPACTS OF MICROFINANCE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – – 1
1.1 Background of the study – – – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – – 4
1.3 Research Questions – – – – – – – – 4
1.4 Objective of the Study – – – – – – – 5
1.5 Hypothesis of the Study – – – – – – – 5
1.6 Significance of the Study – – – – – – – 5
1.7 Limitation of the Study – – – – – – – 6
1.8 Scope of the Study – – – – – – – – 6
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction- – – – – – – – – – 7
2.1.0 Brief Historical Background of the Study- – – – – – 7
2.1.1 Microfinancing and Small Scale Agriculture: An Overview – – – 9
2.1.2 Concept of Micro-Financing and Small-Scale Agricultural Development 11
2.1.3 The Strategy for Microfinance Banking – – – – – 12
2.1.4 Justifications for the Establishment of Microfinance Banks for
Small Scale Agricultural Development – – – – – 14
2.1.5 Frameworks for the Supervision of microfinance Banks – – 15
2.2.0 Microfinance And Agricultural Development in Nigeria – – – 17
2.2.1 The Roles of Microfinance in Agricultural Development – – – 17
2.2.2 Microfinance Institutions that Advance Loans to Agriculture – – 18
2.2.3 Problem Militating Against Small-Scale Farmers in Getting Microfinance
Loans – – – – – – – – – – 20
2.2.4 Microfinance Policy to the Agricultural Sector – – – – 21
2.2.5 Roles of Government in the Promotion of Agriculture in Nigeria – 22
2.3.0 The Impacts Of Micro Finance Banks On Small Scale Agriculture – 29
2.3.1 Microfinance Banks in Nigeria and their Financial Positions – – 29
2.3.3 c Small Scale Yam Production in Nigeria – – – – 38
2.3.4 Disbursement of Microfinance Credit to Small Scale Farmers – – 39
2.3.5 Impacts of Microfinance Credits to Small Scale Agricultural Production
(Rice, Yam, & Cassava) – – – – – – – 43
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Sources Of Data – – – – – – – – 45
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Data Analysis – – – – – – – – 47
4.1 Data Presentation – – – – – – – – 47
4.2 Model Specification – – – – – – – – 48
4.3 Model Estimation – – – – – – – – 49
4.4 Model Evaluation – – – – – – – – 49
4.4 Interpretation of Result – – – – – – – 51
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The revitalization of the agricultural sector has been the cornerstone of the government development policy. This is aimed at moving the country quickly to self-sufficiency in food production of agricultural raw materials for domestic agro-based industries. The need to increase agricultural productivity is implicit in the fact that It remains the leading non-oil sector of Nigerians population. The main objective of the agricultural policy as laid down by “Agricultural Policy for Nigerian”- 1988, are Attainment of self Sufficient in basic foods commodities, increase production and processing of export crops, modernization of agricultural production, processing, storage and distribution through improved technology, increase rural population and lastly improved protection of agricultural lands.
In most developing countries, agriculture is both the main traditional pursuit and the key to sustained growth of the modern economy. Stagnation in agriculture is the Principal explanation for poor economic performance while rising agricultural productivity has been the most important concomitant of successful industrialization.
After independence, the agricultural sector accounted for 53% of GDP by 1980. This has however gone down to 36%. The aggregate index of agricultural production with 1984 as the as the base year rose by 5% in 1993 compared to 66% and 59% in 1992 and 1991 respectively (Abdullahi,1991). Agriculture constitutes the dominant sector of populations who are small farm producers and reside in the rural areas. It is observed that over 80% of the rural population in Nigeria are small holders farmers. (Mellor, J. W., 1996).
As a matter of history, up to early 1970s, agriculture dominated Nigeria’s economy, but since then oil has held the principal position and Nigeria started to experience growth without development. As a result, agriculture has suffered, and increasingly, has occupied a back seat in our drive towards economic take-off. Stagnation on agriculture became more apparent during the 1970s and agricultural services to the economy started to decline at an increasing rate and thus, the Nigerian agriculture is now characterized by low income, low levels of capacity to satisfy the food and fibre needs of the country, primitive techniques of production. According to Ogunfiditimi (1996) it is in fact now a proto-type of peasant Agriculture, which is caught in a vicious circle of poverty, that is, low income, leading to poor savings and little investment in yield-increasing technology. Because technology is poor, both output and income are low.
As part of government strategy to attain increased productivity in the agricultural sector, several policies, activities and projects were being formulated. These include developing rural infrastructure, supply of fertilizers, seeds and other inputs, improving agricultural extension services, and provision of credits aimed at encouraging small scale agriculture.
The predominant of small scale agriculture is a resource based agriculture and is basically subsistence. The farm size ranges from 0.10 hectares to 5.99 hectares and often is scattered holdings per household, production inputs consist mainly of land and family labour. Capital investment is negligible, inputs like fertilizers and chemicals are seldom used and levels of production technology are low. Soil fertility is maintained by bush fallowing, the production is much less market oriented. Several policies to enhance small scale agriculture are been taken by various governments, however, the corresponding impact on production has not been realized, as policies are seldom fully implemented and fraught with frequent changes. This is due to a variety of reasons changes. This is due to a variety of reasons such as shortage and improper disbursement of funds, lack of executive capacity and manpower management problems and inadequate plan preparations.
According to Soludo (2006), sustained small scale agriculture cannot be achieved without putting in place well focused programmes to reduce the problem militating small scale agriculture (farmers) by increasing their access to factors of production especially credit. The latent capacity of the rural small scale farmers would be significantly enhanced though the provision of micro financial services. Microfinance is about proving financial services to the poor who are traditionally not served by the conventional institutions. He believes that microfinance can be distinguished from other formal financial product though the smallness of loans advanced, the absence of assets based collateral and the simplicity of operations which is at the level of the common man.
The practice of microfinance in Nigeria is culturally rooted and dates back several centuries. The traditional microfinance institutions provide access to credit for the rural and urban low income earners. They are mainly of the informal Self-Help Groups (SHGs) or Rotating Saving and Credit Association (ROSCA). Others include saving collectors and co-operative societies which have limited outreach due to inadequate loan-able funds.
In order to enhance the flow of financial services to Nigerian rural areas, government has in the past initiated a series of publicly financed micro/rural credit programmes and policies targeted at the poor. Notable among such programmes were the Rural Banking Programme, sectorial allocation of Credit on concessionary interest rate and the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS). Other Institutional arrangements were the establishment of the Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NARCB), the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC), the Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN) the Community Bank (CB), the Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEP) and later merged the NACB with PBN and FEAP in 2000 to form the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) to enhance the provision of Credit to the agricultural sector.
Alfa (2002) observed that most of the micro-credit scheme suffer set backs because they were founded on erroneous assumptions believing that the poor constitute the same group and tends to employ the same solution towards eradicating the problem of poverty. Researches shown or revealed that the poor should be involved in solving the problem of poverty since they are aware of their own conditions.
Against this background and the problems of inadequate credit and finance, there is a need to device a strategy whereby credit will get to the farmers living in the rural areas as at when due, as to increase the contribution of the sector to our national development. Agriculture is seen and thus believed to be major sector towards growth and development in most countries like Nigeria, and as long as it remain so, the future of this sector in performing its roles becomes imperatively important.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The practice of microfinance in Nigeria, is culturally rooted and dates back many years to the poor performances of the agricultural sector in the country’s economic developments which can be attributed to the traditional way of farming on the part of the small scale farmers.
There are many factors which hindered sustained development of small scale agriculture. One of such factor is low technological level, which comprises of small land holding and the use of traditional tools like hoes, and cutlasses. Other factors include non-wide spread use of fertilizers, and improper use of storage facilities. To raise agricultural the agricultural sector must have its production raised via the adoption of new technology and improvement in its capital investment.
Based on the above, the Federal Government have realized that raising Small Scale farmers output and income is very essential, if continued, economic development and political stability is to be attained. The present system by which small scale farmers depends on non-institutional finance sources (friends, relatives and money lenders) as a source of loans is been divided with paucity of data. However, it is often assumed that capital from the source is generally low and inadequate relative to the need of agriculture in general.
Government sponsored agricultural credit scheme and the establishment of microfinance Banks have been some of the major programme among others designed to facilitate easy flow of credits would enable the farmers to procure the major input for a result oriented agricultural production.
1.3 Research Questions
However, this work was conceived based on the desire of researcher to bring light to the micro financing activities of the microfinance banks particularly the creditaspect in order to study and also ascertain its participatory role in the provision of credit facilities to small scale agriculture through their microfinancing policies.
The research questions to be addressed include:
The answers to these questions will help to bring out the basis of this research work.
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The principal objectives of this research work is to critically examine and analyze the impacts of microfinance in the Nigerian economy and how it can help to improve the contributions of small scale agriculture towards the development of the economy.
More especially, the study seeks to:
1.5 Hypothesis of the Study
The study will be based on the following hypothesis:
H1: Direct small holder loan scheme has not significantly contributed to the activities of small scale agricultural development in Nigeria.
H2: Direct small holder loan scheme has significantly positively contributed to the activities of the small scale agricultural development in Nigerian economy.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The study is concerned with a thorough examination of institutional practices of agricultural financing in Nigeria with particular reference to Barnawa Microfinance Bankdirect small holder loan scheme for small scale agriculture. At the present time when Nigeria is striving for agricultural development to reduce her food deficit situation, it is important for financial institutions to look for ways and means of improving her loans schemes to farmers, especially the small scale farmers who provide over 80 percent of Nigeria’s food requirements.
Food production on a sustainable and self reliant basis for countries of our contemporary world is one of the most important goal and objective of the governments. Food security is an indisposal component of the total security of a modern nation. Throughout history, food has been used as an instrument of domination and enslavement.
Nigeria is directly or indirectly a major contributor to that food import bill. With minerals and vitamins deficiency in our food intakes, and energy and protein deficiency, we cannot but under perform and subsequently be economic and social liability. Current realities dictates and demand that both agric-business and small peasant farming must co-exist in Nigeria.
Agriculture, in Nigeria is caught in a low level equilibrium trap. The rate of return cannot rise because of the nature of the technology in use such agriculture has been described as efficient but poor. In order to break this vicious circle of constraints, there is then the need to inject not only technology and agriculture services but also capital into rural agriculture which is of great concern to this study.
Finally, as Nigerian economy remains dangerously dependent on one sector (i.e. petroleum sector) the need for diversification and attaining self-sufficiency in food production is necessary. Thus, the tendency to justify the need for the much prudential agricultural financing in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
There are certain limitations which are placed in this study. The research work is faced with a lot of problems amongst others are the poor cooperation from institutional sources, constitute a serious delay in the release of data necessary for the work to be complete. There is also the problem of inadequate and accurate data for in-depth assessment of the subject matter.
The sources of data whether primary or secondary was used in this study were assumed to be valid and reliable. The size of the small scale farmers in the area of study were of the range of 0.10 to 5.99 hectares of farm land.
There are certain considerations which delimit the scope of this study. First, although there are many financial institutions which finance agriculture in Nigeria, this study is only concerned with the area of Barnawa Microfinance bank financing.
Secondly, the findings will be based on Barnawa Microfinance Bank Limited. It is meant to improve agricultural financing with particular reference to Barnawa Microfinance Bank Ltd. Loans disbursement and recovery respectively to and from the small scale farmers in the area and the country at large. Thirdly, this study concentrates on the Barnawa Microfinance bank Limited “Direct Small Holder Loan Scheme” (DSHLS).
Beneficiaries of the microfinance programme had only scanty records to present which made it difficult for the researcher to properly assess the success of the programme.
1.8 Scope of the study
The main focus of this research work is to bring to light the activities of microfinance banks and small scale agricultural development in Nigeria. The study is more concern with the thorough examinations of institutional practices of microfinance banks with particular reference to direct loan scheme for small agricultural development in Nigeria from 1996-2005 which would be used to bring out precise and concise conclusions and recommendations. The outcomes are meant to improve agricultural financing with particular reference to BMFB Loans disbursements and recovery respectively to and from the small scale farmers in the area and the country at large.
To assess the current policy practices and problems encountered by BMFB in giving out loans and advances generally, with particular reference to her Direct Small Scale Holder Loan scheme.
To also make a viable proposal for improving the financing of small scale farmers to BFMB towards better service to the state and country at large.
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THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA. A STUDY OF IKORODU LGA LAGOS STATE
Abstract
The role of local government in rural development is critical to the socio-economic progress of communities in Nigeria. This study examines the contribution of local government to rural development, with a specific focus on Ikorodu Local Government Area (LGA) in Lagos State. Rural development encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas.
The study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data were collected through structured questionnaires, interviews with key stakeholders, and a review of relevant documents and reports. The research aims to identify the extent to which the Ikorodu LGA has been successful in implementing rural development projects and the challenges it faces in fulfilling this mandate.
Findings indicate that the Ikorodu LGA has made significant contributions to rural development through initiatives such as infrastructure development, healthcare services, educational improvements, and agricultural support programs. However, the study also reveals several challenges, including inadequate funding, bureaucratic bottlenecks, lack of skilled personnel, and limited community participation in decision-making processes.
The study concludes that while Ikorodu LGA has achieved some success in promoting rural development, there is a need for improved funding mechanisms, capacity building for local government officials, and enhanced community engagement to ensure sustainable development. The recommendations provided aim to guide policymakers and stakeholders in addressing the identified challenges and optimizing the role of local governments in rural development across Nigeria.
This research contributes to the broader understanding of local governance and rural development in Nigeria, highlighting the importance of strengthening local government capacities to achieve meaningful and lasting improvements in rural communities.
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THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The expediency for the creation of local government anywhere in the world stems from the need to facilitate development at the grassroots. The importance of local government is a function of its ability to generate sense of belongingness, safety and satisfaction among its populace. All forms of government, regimes or political systems have so far ensured the attainment of this goal. Such strategy for ensuring national administrative development and political efficacy is found in the concept and practice of local government. Whatever is the mode of government, local government has been essentially regarded as the path to, and guarantor of, national integration, administration and development.
In Nigeria’s socio-political context, with multiplicity of culture, diversity of languages and differentiated needs and means, the importance of such an organization in fostering the needed national consciousness, unity and relative uniformity as well as preservation of peculiar diversities cannot be over-emphasized. Central to the creation of local government, however, is its ability to facilitate an avenue through which government and the people intermix, relate and more quickly than any other means resolve or dissolve issues that may have heated the system. Local government has been perceived as a panacea for the diverse problems of the diverse people with diverse culture.
As important as this tier of government has been, there seems to be some impediments that have been infringing on its performance and functions in recent times. These impediments range from political but undue interference of the higher
levels of government i.e. federal and state governments, bribery and corruption to embezzlement and gross inadequacy of well-trained and qualified personnel to mention a few.
According to Nnoli (1981:36) and Rodney (1972:11), all people have shown a capacity for independently increasing their ability to live more satisfactory life than before. This is then a progressive process that has no end.
A local government is semi-autonomous territorial unit created by the constitution or general laws of a state to undertake certain functions within specified or limited geographical area. According to Agbakoba (2004:3), a local government is a political and administrative unit that is empowered by law to administer a specified locality. It involves philosophical commitment to the idea of community participation in government at grassroots level.
There is general assumption among scholars and practitioners, that local government are not only established as representative organ but also as a channel through which goods and services are delivered to the people within the framework of laws establishing them.
In fact, democracy itself originated and developed along the line of local government initiatives. This is why the executive, legislative and judicial arms of these governments are elected or appointed as the case may be. In Nigeria, local government is created to bring government closer to the people. The definition of local government by the Nigerian Federal Government leaves one with no iota of doubt that it is largely both theoretically sound and service oriented to the people. It talks of representative councils with substantial control over local affairs, for the provision of services and implementation of projects in their areas, to complement the activities of both the State and Federal governments. The definition also amply
recognizes the need for local government autonomy as the substantial control of local governments is aimed at staff, institutional and financial matters, among others (Nigeria, 1976). In addition to the above, the Nigerian Federal Government is one of the few governments in the world perhaps in addition to Brazil (Erero, 1998) that have elevated LGs to a third tier of government. By so doing, the State governments do not exercise absolute controls over local governments.
Therefore, the work seeks to contribute in illuminating the actual status of Warri North local government as regard community or rural development which it purports to be raison d’etre of its existence. The empirical analysis will show whether creation of local government is really for the sake of ensuring grassroots development or mere political compensation for the government loyalists. It is in this light that we chose to study the topic.
Specifically, the paper carefully, critically and objectively examines operational definitions, local government, and development and opinion of the people expressed through the print media about the impact of the Warri North local government council in their areas. And of course, germane recommendations which emanate from the study are provided for the improvement of local government in the development of the localities/communities.
1.2 Statement of Problem
The need to catalyze balanced development, maximize citizens’ participation, and arouse government response necessitates the creation of the local government. The local government serves as a form of political and administrative structure facilitating decentralization, national integration, efficiency in governance, and a sense of belonging at the grassroots. The local government is a unit of administration all over the world (Agagu, 2004).
Local government has been the root of development in terms of dealings with the people which democracy is centred upon. Hence, local government is visibly seen as co-agent of rural development and as partners in progress with both states and federal governments in rural developments.
To this end, this study sets out to investigate the impact of local government on rural/grass root development with emphasis on Warri North Local Government of Delta State. Knowing the roles the government needs to play in development of any society and the obvious inability of the national and state governments in the task of rural areas, Local government has been created essentially to compliment the efforts of the states and national government in the task of rural development. Nevertheless, abject poverty and underdevelopment remains a common feature in these rural communities.
Thus, in pursuance of the central problem in this research a number of questions have been raised (posed) for this research purpose. They are:
i) Has Warri North local government Area contributed substantially to rural development?
ii) Does Inadequacy of Skilled Workers (like qualified engineers of all types, medical doctors etc) affect the ability Warri North local government council in carrying out rural development programme?
iii) Does inadequate financing of the local government by the state and federal government affect the ability of Warri North local government council to contribute to rural development?
1.3 Objectives of Study
The broad objective of this study is to assess the performance of Warri North local government council in the area of rural development.
The specific objectives of the study are as follows.
1. To ascertain whether Warri North local government has contributed substantially to rural development.
2. To find out if inadequacy of skilled workers (like qualified engineers all types, medical doctors, etc) affect the ability of Warri North local government council in carrying out rural development programme.
3. To verify whether inadequate financing by both state and federal governments hinders the council in carrying out developmental programmes.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the study provides a theoretical framework for the understanding of the role of local government in rural development in Nigeria. Therefore considering the pivotal role of local government in development in general, such information will be of immense help for policy formulation on the development of grassroots. The result of the study will equally be of help to other researchers who may want to research on such topic or related topics on development in the academia in the future.
On the practical significance, the study will draw attention of, and enlighten both the stakeholders and those who implement policies on rural development in Nigeria who may not really understand the central role of rural development on the crucial and inescapable role of local government system. As a result, the rural dwellers will endeavour to participate full in grassroots democratization and development, while those who implement policy on development in Nigeria will become dedicated to policy formulation, recommendations and implementation.
1.6 Operational Definition of Concept
Grassroots/Rural development: The term grassroots development as used in this study refers to the act or process of developing and empowering the well-being of the vast majority of the rural dwellers through the provision of basic social and economic infrastructures. Hence, it is a development from below. According to Todaro (1985) grassroots development is an advancement that makes life more meaningful in all its entirety. Whether political, economic, socio-cultural and infrastructural.
Rural Dwellers
Rural dwellers are the people living in the remote areas of a country and lack basic infrastructure like good road network, pipe borne water, electricity, good health facility etc. The term refers to the ordinary people who are far from political decision making process at the centre. These groups includes small scale farmers, tenants, etc who seek livelihood in the rural areas.
Democracy/local government
The term democracy “literally signifies” the rule of the people: the term democracy as it is used in the study synchronizes with Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy. Gauba (1981:421) quoting Lincoln and it reads: Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people. It implies that ultimate authority of government is vested in the common people so that the public policy is made to conform to the will of the people and to serve the interests of the people.
From the foregoing, one can rightly say that democracy is all about “peoples” participation in government–and local government. Therefore, Democracy and local government are inseparable and are synonymous.
1.7 Literature Review
1.7.1 Local Government and Rural Development
Communal effort has not been a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the time of primitive communalism when people searched for their living communally. In the early state of man, he always sought ways of conquering nature. Bryne (1983:55) argues that the concept of community development is not new, that rather it is an old ideology. The reality in Bentham’s assertion that community development is a man in the society can be sustained by the fact that communities throughout history constructed and maintained their roads, bridges, square, sunk their well for good drinking water supply, and constructed their markets, village churches and village halls by community efforts.
Lawal, (2008:56) community development is not new in Nigeria, that what is actually new nowadays in community development are techniques and methods through which new pattern of leadership emerges from the rank and file.
Dare, (1989:38) in his own contribution argues that though local government is a veritable vehicle for community development, most local government have not made appreciate impact in this direction. He attributes the problem to the myriad of functions allocated to local government without commensurate financial backing.
Ogunna (1980:44) attributed the low performance of local government to the following factors; inadequate revenue, low executive capacity, poor and inadequate working materials, incompetence and ineptitude of existing staff and excessive control by the state government which result in delays and red-tapism. The solution, he suggested, lies in the review of the local government system particularly in areas of financial relationship with the state government and personnel. This control of local
government was made clear in the implementation, guideline on the application of the civil service. Reform in the local government service.
Okunade, (1988:).expressing his own idea, state that the spread of counties has provided the awareness among rural dwellers, and has provided the existence for a concept of the process of community development and of project which have been set in motion since the United National Organization development its concepts since thirty years ago. Community development draw greater inspiration from the desire for a change and in the ability of man to learn and charge through the voluntary method, (that is, free from coercion) and through the participation of individuals and groups in the development process for the achievement of some definite goals.
According to Sehinde, (2008:9) community development is:
A process of education by which people of all ages and interest in the community, learn to share their thoughts, their ideas, the participation, their joys and their sorrows and in a large measures to mould and shape the communal destiny for themselves. It is a process of self discovery by the while the people of a community learn to identify and solve their community problems.
A firm grasp at their beliefs and value system will throw light on what the community accepts as good and bad, as right or wrong. In turn, changes achieved by community effort can influence the beliefs and value system of a community. It is necessary to stimulate the self-help spirit of the people by mobilizing them for communal efforts, which should be sustained with the assistance of the government. Blue Print for rural development, argues that for effective implementation of strategies for community development the town and community unions, age grades, etc should be linked with government. This idea he said is to involve the community people fully through their union, age grades and other similar policies that are designed to improve their economic, social, political and cultural development. He stated that this would enable them to make positive contributions to both rural and national development. The community union and age grade in every community have usually served as point of articulation and fully aware of the needs of the people. However, if they are fully integrated into the planning stage of development project, a lot will be achieved.
Writing on rural development in Nigeria, Mabogunje, (1992:191) in his book “leading issues in Nigerian Rural Development” accused successive Nigerian government at being previous regimes, rather than developing the rural areas. He content that this is the general pattern all over the third world countries. Mabogunje, remarked that many strategies such as “authoritarian hand out” from the administration which prescribed the facilities suitable for the rural areas and two, the so-called development from below have been tried in the past, in the attempt to solve rural poverty in Nigeria. These strategies have however not proved successful; he looks at rural development problem such as lack of co-ordinated community development programmes, manpower problems of infrastructure, problem of relevant rural education. He suggest solutions to these problems, which include clear understanding of the concept community development, an integrated development programmes, provision of infrastructure, relevance at rural education to the peculiar need and aspiration of the rural areas.
Local government and rural development in Nigeria, Olowo, et al., and (1991) describes government approach to rural development as a more sham. According to him, government has succeeded in imposing development programme on the rural masses, such programme he argues, only benefited a few rich and powerful urban elite. He calls for a model of rural development, which involves the genuine participation of the rural people. Such he continues will be relatively independent of centralized urban-oriented bureaucratic machines.
Nwaka, (1999:33-36) on his part argued that government imposition of rural development programme on the communities have been Cog in the wheal of rural development. As he put it, government have often set community development; priorities without the participation of the target or relevant communities. He suggests
that since government, communities are the engines of growth; government should play down its excessive control in betting out development goals and priorities for local communities.
Nnoli, (1980) sees self-help, as a strategy for rural development as a form of exploitation because, according to him, for the rural people it is viewed as the task resort to their survival due to government neglect. According to him, the community development process arises from the crying need of the rural population for social welfare services, unwillingness of the rural class to provide these amenities, the exploitation of the ruling class of the competition among communities for those social artefacts which are deemed to reflect social progress, and the exploitation by the ruling class at the tendency by Nigerians to invest more time, energy and resources and those tasks approved by their communities than those sanctioned by the national collectively via-the-state.
Okoli, (2000) in his book contends that the British colonialists in Nigeria hatched community development ideology in order to under develop the people through his negative manipulation strategy. He regrets that his strategy has continued to be employed by indigenous rulers in the post-colonial state. He further contends that this strategy predicated upon the colonial policy of economic exploitation of the local area in an instrument used to sustain the self-interest of the ruling classes while the rural communities suffer under poor, hash and stagnated conditions.
Aborisade (1988) in his book highlighted the various development programmes designed by successive governments in Nigeria, which aimed at developing the rural communities. He gives an example of River Basin and Rural Development Authorities established in 1975 to promote rural development. He laments that in practice the scheme bloated bureaucracies feeding on mega million
naira contracts for irrigation and other agricultural projects while the rural areas for which they are meant seemed to have recorded deeper in debilitating poverty.
Finally, from the extensive review of literature, it is obvious that scholars like Akpan, (1982), Olisa (1992) and Olowu (1988) regretted that rural development activities and programmes of the past decades of national independence have not transformed the country’s rural areas in the modern, well supplied contended that prosperous population envisaged are the beginning of national sovereignty. They concluded that in terms at the number of programmes identification pursued, rural development in Nigeria has made little transformatary impact. They cite basic social services, public utilities and essential infrastructure as still being woefully inadequate in almost all corners of the country.
1.7.2 Inadequate Finance and Rural Development
One of the perennial problems which has not only defied all past attempts at permanent solution, but also has a tendency for evoking high emotions on the part of all concerned (each time it is brought forth for discussion or analysis) is the issue of equitable revenue allocation in Nigeria. It is an issue which has been politicised by successive administrations in Nigeria both Military and civilian regimes. Indeed, in virtually all country in which the constitution shares power between the central and regional or state governments and, for each level to be “within a sphere co-ordinate and independent” (Wheare 1963:93) enough resources need be allocated to each tier to justify their existence.
Perhaps, more important at this juncture is a consideration of the adequacy of the total revenue profile of LGs, from all sources, for their operations. In the works of Ikelegbe, (2005) and Aghayere, (2008) they are of the view that local governments obtain adequate revenue for their operations. However, as Ikelegbe (2005:54), for
example, puts it, there is ‘tremendous strengthening of local government funding, structuring, autonomy and democratization. Adequate finance is an indispensible tool for local government administration and the execution of project for which it was not up.
According to Orewa (1968:225) the raison d’être of local authority is to collect it revenue efficiently and to use such revenue to prove many social service as possible for its tax payers while at the same time maintaining a reasonable amount reserve tide it over any period of financial stringency. Hence the ability of local authorities to generate revenue to manage it properly. Blau and Scout as a cited by Mukoro, (2001:1) in their local government have noted that they do not exist but in communities and societies and have roots in large social system.
Following from the foregoing, the basic environment of a local in Nigeria with regard to revenue generation can be identified based on the provision at chapter (vi)
(c) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which deals with public revenue and the fourth schedule there provides functions of a local government council section 162 (of chapter (vi) such section 3,5,6,7 and 8) provide that “Any amount standing to the credit of the federation account and shall be distributed among the federal and state government council in such state on such terms and in manner as may be presided by the National Assembly.
According to Okoli (1998:125), despite the elaborate provision made in both decree No. 36 of 1998 and 1999 constitution for the financial autonomy of the local government doubt still remains as to the financial relationships among the three tier of government for one thing the direct funding of the local government which has been jettisoned by the ambiguities in the provision of 1999 constitution as far as finance of the local government are concerned.
The financial crisis of most local government in developing counties is worsened by the fact that they are located in the rural areas. As a result of rural poverty, they are unable to generate enough internal revenue. They, therefore, rely mainly on statutory allocation from the federal government which is usually inadequate for any meaningful development activity. As aptly stated in the local government Yearbook (1998:18).
Adedeji (2000:96) asserts that the success or failure and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of local government depends on the financial resources available to the individuals local authorities and the way the resources are utilized indeed the problem associated with inadequacy of finding continue to remain quite high among factors most frequently of local government to effectively perform their statutorily developed function.
Akpan, (1965:126) argued that the bottom line in judging the effectiveness of local government is the amount of funds at their disposal. He notes that “the success of a local authority is often measured in terms of its ability to provide services to the public. These services cost money”, which the local government do not have sufficiency.
Ogbonnia (2004:34) say’s that other sources of local government revenue depend on the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the council. He further explains that, there are several ways the council can generate funds but the major problems lies in the ability of the chairman to look inwards to create means of generating funds for the council.
The inadequacies of operational and capital funds constitute a set-back on local government implementation of regular services and investment programmes. Consequently, most local government can only pay workers salaries and take care of
recruitment expenditure. In the case of Nigeria, the financial crisis in the local government has been worsened by the failure of the Federal Government to recognize the new local government created by some states. The state governors new use part of statutory allocations meant for the newly created ones, which in Enugu referred to as development centres (Ezeani, 2004).
1.7.3 Paucity of Skilled Manpower and Rural Development
When we are talking about manpower, we are referring to human resources. Manpower to often taken as the most important resources of an organization because other resources are harnessed to meet the need to men. This problem has been a major constraints to the effectiveness and efficiency of local government in Nigeria vis-à-vis Warri North local government.
Adewumi (198), Nkala (1985), Onah (1995) and Nkala (1985), noted that at the inception of democratic local government system in the former Eastern region of Nigeria in 1950, early recruits into the local government service were mainly “Sons of the soil”. Orewa and Adewumi (1983) rightly stated that recruitment based on patronage, have created problems of redundancy in local governments where stern measures like termination of appointment and suspension of staff are rarely contemplated.
There is no doubt that the effectiveness of any organization to a large extent depend on the calibre of its staff. The local government does not have enough graduates employed in its services. The people who work in the local government are employed based on favouritism and not on merit. Most of the staffs or the council don’t know what is expected of them as local government staff. Most of them did not go beyond primary school, and therefore cannot perform well. They don’t even know
the function of the department they found themselves let alone the work they expected to perform, and this contributes in affecting the rural development.
Staff training and development is another important aspect that has been neglected in local councils. According to Blum and Mayor (1976), effective training programmes can result in increased production, reduced labour turnover, and greater employee satisfaction.
The people who work in the community development department because of lack of skills for the nature of their job use wrong approach or measure in appealing to the communities to contribute and take part in community development.
According to Onah (1995:114), the inability to provide management training in areas of operations other than finance and general administration such as engineers, architects, accountant, doctors, nurses, agriculture extension workers etc continues to militate against effective performance in most local governments in Nigeria.
In an effort to address this quandary of manpower in terms of (skilled manpower like Engineers and Doctors and Administrators) in local government system in Nigeria, the federal military government in 1979 introduced three university-based Department of Public Administration and local government: University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ille-Ife Ezeani (2004:183-184).
This paper intends to study local government as an instrument of rural development and see if there has been any significant change in terms of the effect in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.
1.8 Theoretical Framework
The theory which informs our discussion of local government and rural development, a study of Warri North local government council is the general systems
theory. The scholar most associated with this theory is Easton (1965) “sees the political system as a set of interrelated and reciprocally regulated patterns of actions and orientation, pattern that cluster together in equilibrium and that have certain needs of maintenance and survival. It is a phenomenon of whatever type, including physical, biological, social, political, etc., which is an organized whole with identifiable, interrelated structures delineating it from the environment (supra system) in which it is located and with which it interacts, processing the inputs from it into outputs for it. The general systems theory seeks to argue that every system, including political system, has subsystems which make up the entire system. They are assigned functions and provided with enabling empowerment, including resources, appropriate authority, etc. to enable them discharge their responsibilities optimally. Where this is the case, there is said to be homeostasis (stability) in the political system. On the other hand, instability reigns in the political system where the contrary is the case and the subsystems and entire system are also unable to function optimally.
Input and output analysis of a political system is very important. A political system is said to obtain its inputs (demands, supports, liberty or autonomy, cooperation, criticisms, resources, information, direct labour, etc.) from the environment. These inputs are what the subsystems employ to discharge their responsibilities, so that the political system can send out its outputs into the environment and obtain further inputs for its operations.
Environment
Environment
Demand Support
Conversion of Demand
Decisions
Actions
Feedbackk
Diagrammatic representation of David Easton’s System Analysis
Source: Gauba op, an introduction to political theory.
Application of the theory
Applying this theory of the systems analysis to the local government system, the local government system in the country constitutes the sub-system. They must be well handled in terms of being fed with adequate inputs, so that they can contribute appropriately to the optimality of the whole (country) political system, as well as its homeostasis. If the reverse is the case, that is, if the local government system do not have the required inputs to operate on.
According Apter (1963:15) the political system has two elements viz input (made up of demand support) and output (made up of authoritative decisions). By input, he meant those factors which emanated from the environment and go into decision making. They are those demands that come out from the society. Outputs are results that emanates from the demand and support made at the level of input.
Warri North local government council is a system which carries out these functions by receiving inputs from the people and converting it into output. The citizens are involved in such demands above. This demand on the system is in inform of appeal to the council authority to provide some basic infrastructure like good road network, pipe borne water, health facilities, ultra modern markets etc. Support on the other hand could be people’s participation in decision making process or voting in community development project as well as financial support, in form of tax, rates paid by the people including grant from Delta State and Federal Government of Nigeria. Though, this means they provide raw material on which the system acts, so as to produce output. This in turn will influence the environment of the system and consequently generate continued demand which in turn creates a feed back and the whole process continues on a cyclical pattern.
1.9 Hypothesis
In the light of the research question and of related literature, the following hypothesis will be tested:
H1: Warri North local council has not contributed substantially to rural development in the local government area.
H2: The inadequacy of skilled workers (like qualified engineers all types, medical doctors, etc) affects the ability of Warri North local government council in carrying out rural development programmes.
H3: Inadequate funding by both the Delta State and the Federal Governments hinders Warri North Local Government council’s ability to carrying out developmental programmes.
1.10 Research Methodology
i. Method of Data Collection
According to Cohen and Manion (1980:26) methods, refer to the approaches used in research to gather data which are to be used as a basis for inference and interpretation for explanation and prediction. There is no doubt that the quality of data is inextricably tied to the methods and techniques used for gathering the data. Thus to generate relevant data for this study, we shall adopt observation technique. Obasi, (1999:169) Defined methodology as a purposefully planned and systematically executed act of watching or looking at the occurrence of events, activities and behaviour which constitute the subject of focus of research or study. The relevance of observation method to this study is obvious since it yield data that pertain directly to typical behavioural situations; assuming, of course, that they are applied to such situations (Selltiz et al, 1977:201). Through observation of political phenomena, accurate descriptions and better explanations of such phenomena are achieved (Ikeagwu, 1998:172).
The implication of this is that through observation, accurate explanation of the variables under study can be made. However, given the nature of this study especially the type of data required to interrogate our hypotheses, we will utilize primary (interview through questionnaire) and secondary sources of data. Secondary sources of data refer to a set of data gathered or authored by another person, usually information from the available data, archives, textbooks, journals, seminar paper, newspapers and magazines, internet printouts, government documents and other relevant documents on local government and rural development in Nigeria or survey results and code books collected for a purpose other than the present one (White,1983:233; Ikeagwu, 1998: 211; Asika, 2006: 27). As articulated by Selltiz et al, (1977: 317).
The advantages of secondary sources of data lie in the obvious fact that information of this sort is collected periodically. This makes the establishment of trends and consistent patterns over time possible. Again, the gathering of information from such sources does not require the cooperation or assistance of the individual about whom information is being sought.
ii. Instrument to be used:
The instrument used in collecting data for this study is questionnaire and oral interview. Although the major one will be the questionnaire. It will be used to elicit pertinent information from the subjects. The questionnaire has two sections. Section A will be used to entail the personal characteristics of the respondents while section B will help to elicit information about local government and community development in Warri North local government area.
iii. Population of the Study:
The Population of this study is drawn from all the sixteen (16) communities that make-up the Warri North local government. These communities includes the following; Okifamba, Opuama, Gbokoda, Ugoge-Egbin, Ajagbodudu, Ogheye, Abigborodo, Ajaolubgeti, Idebagbene, Ugogoegin, Ogobudugbudu, Oboghoro, Tsekelewu, Koko Beach, Ebrohimi, and Koko town, The total number of population of these communities as reviewed by the 2006 census figure is 137,300.
iv. Sample Size
For this study, the researcher adopted the convenient sampling technique in selecting the respondents. From a total of 137,300 population for the local government, according to the 2006 National Census figure, the researcher adopted a sample size of 150. This is less than 5% of the entire population of the local government. This choice is informed by Nwana (1981) submission as cited in Okoro (2001, p. 69) that ’’if the
population is a few hundreds, a 40% or more sample will do; if many hundreds, a 20% sample will do; if a few thousands, a 10% sample will do and if several thousands, a 5% or less sample will do. The population of this study runs into several thousands and that is why a less than 5% sample is considered appropriate.
v. Sampling Technique:
As stated earlier in this discussion, the study included itself to simple Random Sampling to draw the population of the study. The use of simple random sampling helped to elucidate the research analysis. Simple Random Sampling gives equal chances of opportunity to the entire Universe in the population and reduces the rate errors.
v. Method of data Analysis
For the analysis of data, we will rely on qualitative descriptive analysis. Asika (2006:118) defines qualitative descriptive analysis to mean summarizing the information generated in the research verbally so as to further discover relationships among variables. The adoption of the foregoing analytical method becomes necessary since the study will rely principally on secondary sources of data.
The researcher used simple percentage, tables and descriptive statistical method in analysis.
vi. Validity and reliability of the instrument:
The instrument was validated, which means that the questionnaires were given to the supervisor and were thoroughly vetted. After going through them, corrections and suggestive directions were made. To ensure reliability of the instrument used for this study, a pilot text was conducted using twenty five people from Warri North local government council and twenty five people from the communities. This also will help to check the ambiguities of the questions before administering it to the actual subjects.
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RURAL DEVELOPMENT AS A MEANS OF COMBATING RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Rural areas are a key sector in every nation’s economy and their rapid development and modernization have gained the attention of policy makers and governments all over the world. This is because a sizeable majority of the population lives therein therefore; the future of the country depends largely on it.
The American Bureau of Census classifies a group of people living in a community having a population of not more than 2,500 people as rural, whereas in Nigeria, the Federal Office of Statistics defines a community with less than 20,000 people as rural. According to Afolayan (1995), rural areas can be easily identified by various criteria, apart from population. Such criteria include the level of infrastructural development i.e. road networks, educational institutions, water supply, electricity, health facilities, communication, etc. Other criteria used include Occupation, Housing, Extent of community planning etc.
Typically, rural dwellers are less vocal, characterized by a culture of poverty, as most people live barely above subsistence level (Laah et al, 2013). Rural areas in developing countries are usually deprived of the basic needs of life such as housing, medical care, postal communication, education, transport etc.
Specifically, rural areas refer to geographical areas that lie outside the densely built-up environment of towns, cities and the sub-urban villages and whose inhabitants are engaged primarily in agriculture as well as the most basic of rudimentary form of secondary and tertiary activities (Ezeah, 2005). Rural area, which is the opposite of an urban area, refers to the country side whose population engages mainly in primary production activities like agriculture, fishing, and rearing of livestock (Ele, 2006). About 90 percent of the rural labour workforce engages directly or indirectly in agriculture (Nyagba, 2009).
The rural sector of Nigeria is, very vital to the socio-economic development of the nation. According to Nyagba (2009), the most important sector of the Nigerian population is the rural areas. This is because the rural sector is the major source of capital formation for the country and a principal market for domestic and raw materials for industrial processes (Ugwuanyi and Emma, 2013). Rural area dwellers have been found to engage in primary economic activities that form the foundation for the country’s economic development (Abah, 2010).
Given the contributions of the rural sector to the national economy, enhancing the development of the sector should be central to government and public administration. This is necessary as such would further enhance the ability of the sector for increased contribution to the overall national growth and development. In most countries, development is most desirous in the rural areas where bulk of the population resides. The development of rural areas signals to a greater extent the level of national development and the situation of the nations in the development ladder.
Rural development has therefore been described in different ways by different authors, depending on the discipline or line of thought. This is because the approach to rural development is multidisciplinary. According to Aslam (1981) rural development is a process aimed at developing the rural poor, their economy and institutions from a state of stagnation or low productivity equilibrium into dynamic process leading to higher levels of living and better quality of life. Similarly, Schumacher (1983) defined rural development as developing the skill of the masses to make them self-reliant through instructions which supply appropriate and relevant knowledge on the methods of self-help. Rural development is a strategy which is designed to improve the economic and social life of a specific group of people, the rural poor.
It involves extending the developmental strides and benefits people who seek a livelihood in the rural areas such as small-scale farmers, tenants etc in order to improve their means of livelihood and mitigate the massive rural urban migration (Aliy, 1999). Rural-urban migration occurs at varying levels in every country. However, the challenges and prospects of rural development in Nigeria have been of great concern to the different tiers of government due to the rate of rural-urban migration.
Different motives account for rural urban migration amongst rural dwellers such as socio-cultural issues where people are forced to migrate to avoid numerous social problems at their place of origin (Agyemang, 2013), poor infrastructural development and lack of basic amenities, search for better economic opportunities such as jobs etc. Accessibility and ease of transportation and communication has also been noted to facilitate rural urban migration, this view is based on the extension of road networks from major towns to peripheral-urban and rural areas that resulted in the decrease in transportation cost and improved communication systems.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Given the contributions of the rural sector to the national economy, enhancing the development of the sector should be priority to government and relevant stakeholders. This is necessary as such would further enhance the ability of the sector for increased contribution to the overall national growth and development. Unfortunately, over the years, the development strategies and efforts in Nigeria has been more urban based resulting in the relative neglect of rural areas as evidenced by the dearth of basic infrastructure in the rural areas such as good roads, well equipped and functional hospitals, electricity, pipe borne water etc (Abah, 2010).
Abonyi and Nnamani (2011) also noted that rural poverty persists in Nigeria despite the prosperity created by the country’s oil wealth as evidenced by the difficulty experienced in getting basic daily needs such as food, water and shelter. Lack of these basic life needs in the rural areas has made a number of rural dwellers migrate to urban centres with high hopes of improving their standard of living. According to Abah (2010), the deplorable condition of the Nigerian rural sector is emphatic and more worrisome is that even the few policies and programs put in place and implemented by government over the years have not resulted in significant improvement in the development of the rural areas in Nigeria (Ezeah, 2005).
Incessant and excessive rural urban migration has brought about a lot of socio-economic difficulties both in the rural and urban areas. McCarthy (2004), opined that ‘excessive urbanization leads to high rate of urban congestion, crime and poor infrastructure such as proper sewage disposal system, safe and portable drinking water, electricity and other amenities, chronic unemployment with the attendant creation of large slums and Shanty towns’. Many developing countries including Nigeria have made several attempts to resolve these problems of rural underdevelopment and desertion. In Nigeria, from the Colonial period till date, successive administrations have tried to reform the rural areas where over 75% of Nigerians live in for the sake of attaining balanced growth and development, and discourage rural-urban migration, to no avail (Omonigho, 2013). According to Nwakeze (2004), the Nigerian population is growing at an annual rate of 2.8 percent that of the urban population is growing at 5.5 percent, it is pertinent to note that this rate is among the highest in the world today. This therefore calls for urgent measures to be taken towards fast tracking rural development to reduce urban population explosion.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The general objective of this study is to determine the effect of rural development on rural urban migration. The specific objectives are;
To determine whether rural development can serve as a panacea for rural urban migration
To find out the socio-economic causes of rural urban migration
To determine the implications of rural urban migration on rural development
To identify measures put in place for rural development by government
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Can rural development serve as a panacea to rural urban migration?
What are the socio-economic causes of rural urban migration?
What are the consequences of rural urban migration on rural development?
What measures are put in place by government to develop the rural areas?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
In order to enable the researcher assess the effect of rural development in combating rural urban migration in Nigeria, the following hypotheses will be tested:
Ho: Rural development does not have any influence on rural urban migration in Nigeria.
HA: Rural development has an influence on rural urban migration in Nigeria
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will help beam the searchlight on rural development and its substantive effect in combating rural urban migration in Nigeria. The study seeks to find out the socio-economic and cultural causes of rural-urban migration in the study area and its implications on rural development with respect to the study area; this will help in highlighting strategies adopted by the community members to cope with the situation and what can be done to curb the situation.
This research study will also help reveal the extent of the problem to relevant stakeholders so that they can rise to the occasion and put in measures to develop the rural areas in order to reduce rural urban migration. Finally, this research work will add to the existing body of knowledge on the importance of rural development in combating rural urban migration in Nigeria.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
This study will cover rural development and its impact on combating rural urban migration in Nigeria with special reference to the actual influence it has on the socio-economic activities and lives of rural dwellers, causes of rural-urban migration and measures put in place by relevant stakeholders to combat the menace of rural urban migration in the study area. The study will also cover all the rural areas and incidence of rural urban migration in Nigeria.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Rural area: a geographical area located outside cities and towns with a relatively low population density and small settlements.
Migration: movement of people across a specified boundary for the purpose of establishing a new or semi-permanent residence.
Rural development: the process of improving the quality of life and economic well being of people living in relatively isolated and
Rural urban migration: is a process of population shift from rural areas to urban areas with attendant increase in proportion of people living in urban areas.
Infrastructure: basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.
REFERENCES
RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A MEANS OF COMBATING RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN NIGERIA
Rural areas are a key sector in every nation’s economy and their rapid development and modernization have gained the attention of policy makers and governments all over the world. This is because a sizeable majority of the population lives therein therefore; the future of the country depends largely on it.
The American Bureau of Census classifies a group of people living in a community having a population of not more than 2,500 people as rural, whereas in Nigeria, the Federal Office of Statistics defines a community with less than 20,000 people as rural. According to Afolayan (1995), rural areas can be easily identified by various criteria, apart from population. Such criteria include the level of infrastructural development i.e. road networks, educational institutions, water supply, electricity, health facilities, communication, etc. Other criteria used include Occupation, Housing, Extent of community planning etc.
Typically, rural dwellers are less vocal, characterized by a culture of poverty, as most people live barely above subsistence level (Laah et al, 2013). Rural areas in developing countries are usually deprived of the basic needs of life such as housing, medical care, postal communication, education, transport etc.
Specifically, rural areas refer to geographical areas that lie outside the densely built-up environment of towns, cities and the sub-urban villages and whose inhabitants are engaged primarily in agriculture as well as the most basic of rudimentary form of secondary and tertiary activities (Ezeah, 2005). Rural area, which is the opposite of an urban area, refers to the country side whose population engages mainly in primary production activities like agriculture, fishing, and rearing of livestock (Ele, 2006). About 90 percent of the rural labour workforce engages directly or indirectly in agriculture (Nyagba, 2009).
The rural sector of Nigeria is, very vital to the socio-economic development of the nation. According to Nyagba (2009), the most important sector of the Nigerian population is the rural areas. This is because the rural sector is the major source of capital formation for the country and a principal market for domestic and raw materials for industrial processes (Ugwuanyi and Emma, 2013). Rural area dwellers have been found to engage in primary economic activities that form the foundation for the country’s economic development (Abah, 2010).
Given the contributions of the rural sector to the national economy, enhancing the development of the sector should be central to government and public administration. This is necessary as such would further enhance the ability of the sector for increased contribution to the overall national growth and development. In most countries, development is most desirous in the rural areas where bulk of the population resides. The development of rural areas signals to a greater extent the level of national development and the situation of the nations in the development ladder.
Rural development has therefore been described in different ways by different authors, depending on the discipline or line of thought. This is because the approach to rural development is multidisciplinary. According to Aslam (1981) rural development is a process aimed at developing the rural poor, their economy and institutions from a state of stagnation or low productivity equilibrium into dynamic process leading to higher levels of living and better quality of life. Similarly, Schumacher (1983) defined rural development as developing the skill of the masses to make them self-reliant through instructions which supply appropriate and relevant knowledge on the methods of self-help. Rural development is a strategy which is designed to improve the economic and social life of a specific group of people, the rural poor.
It involves extending the developmental strides and benefits people who seek a livelihood in the rural areas such as small-scale farmers, tenants etc in order to improve their means of livelihood and mitigate the massive rural urban migration (Aliy, 1999). Rural-urban migration occurs at varying levels in every country. However, the challenges and prospects of rural development in Nigeria have been of great concern to the different tiers of government due to the rate of rural-urban migration.
Different motives account for rural urban migration amongst rural dwellers such as socio-cultural issues where people are forced to migrate to avoid numerous social problems at their place of origin (Agyemang, 2013), poor infrastructural development and lack of basic amenities, search for better economic opportunities such as jobs etc. Accessibility and ease of transportation and communication has also been noted to facilitate rural urban migration, this view is based on the extension of road networks from major towns to peripheral-urban and rural areas that resulted in the decrease in transportation cost and improved communication systems.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Given the contributions of the rural sector to the national economy, enhancing the development of the sector should be priority to government and relevant stakeholders. This is necessary as such would further enhance the ability of the sector for increased contribution to the overall national growth and development. Unfortunately, over the years, the development strategies and efforts in Nigeria has been more urban based resulting in the relative neglect of rural areas as evidenced by the dearth of basic infrastructure in the rural areas such as good roads, well equipped and functional hospitals, electricity, pipe borne water etc (Abah, 2010).
Abonyi and Nnamani (2011) also noted that rural poverty persists in Nigeria despite the prosperity created by the country’s oil wealth as evidenced by the difficulty experienced in getting basic daily needs such as food, water and shelter. Lack of these basic life needs in the rural areas has made a number of rural dwellers migrate to urban centres with high hopes of improving their standard of living. According to Abah (2010), the deplorable condition of the Nigerian rural sector is emphatic and more worrisome is that even the few policies and programs put in place and implemented by government over the years have not resulted in significant improvement in the development of the rural areas in Nigeria (Ezeah, 2005).
Incessant and excessive rural urban migration has brought about a lot of socio-economic difficulties both in the rural and urban areas. McCarthy (2004), opined that ‘excessive urbanization leads to high rate of urban congestion, crime and poor infrastructure such as proper sewage disposal system, safe and portable drinking water, electricity and other amenities, chronic unemployment with the attendant creation of large slums and Shanty towns’. Many developing countries including Nigeria have made several attempts to resolve these problems of rural underdevelopment and desertion. In Nigeria, from the Colonial period till date, successive administrations have tried to reform the rural areas where over 75% of Nigerians live in for the sake of attaining balanced growth and development, and discourage rural-urban migration, to no avail (Omonigho, 2013). According to Nwakeze (2004), the Nigerian population is growing at an annual rate of 2.8 percent that of the urban population is growing at 5.5 percent, it is pertinent to note that this rate is among the highest in the world today. This therefore calls for urgent measures to be taken towards fast tracking rural development to reduce urban population explosion.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The general objective of this study is to determine the effect of rural development on rural urban migration. The specific objectives are;
To determine whether rural development can serve as a panacea for rural urban migration
To find out the socio-economic causes of rural urban migration
To determine the implications of rural urban migration on rural development
To identify measures put in place for rural development by government
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Can rural development serve as a panacea to rural urban migration?
What are the socio-economic causes of rural urban migration?
What are the consequences of rural urban migration on rural development?
What measures are put in place by government to develop the rural areas?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
In order to enable the researcher assess the effect of rural development in combating rural urban migration in Nigeria, the following hypotheses will be tested:
Ho: Rural development does not have any influence on rural urban migration in Nigeria.
HA: Rural development has an influence on rural urban migration in Nigeria
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will help beam the searchlight on rural development and its substantive effect in combating rural urban migration in Nigeria. The study seeks to find out the socio-economic and cultural causes of rural-urban migration in the study area and its implications on rural development with respect to the study area; this will help in highlighting strategies adopted by the community members to cope with the situation and what can be done to curb the situation.
This research study will also help reveal the extent of the problem to relevant stakeholders so that they can rise to the occasion and put in measures to develop the rural areas in order to reduce rural urban migration. Finally, this research work will add to the existing body of knowledge on the importance of rural development in combating rural urban migration in Nigeria.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
This study will cover rural development and its impact on combating rural urban migration in Nigeria with special reference to the actual influence it has on the socio-economic activities and lives of rural dwellers, causes of rural-urban migration and measures put in place by relevant stakeholders to combat the menace of rural urban migration in the study area. The study will also cover all the rural areas and incidence of rural urban migration in Nigeria.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Rural area: a geographical area located outside cities and towns with a relatively low population density and small settlements.
Migration: movement of people across a specified boundary for the purpose of establishing a new or semi-permanent residence.
Rural development: the process of improving the quality of life and economic well being of people living in relatively isolated and
Rural urban migration: is a process of population shift from rural areas to urban areas with attendant increase in proportion of people living in urban areas.
Infrastructure: basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.
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ASSESSMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN KACHIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN KADUNA STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Research Questions
1.4 Significance of the study
1.5 Definitions of major terms
1.6 Reference
CHAPTER TWO
Review of relevant literature
Reference
CHAPTER THREE
Research methodology
3.1 Source of data
3.2 Population of study
3.3 Determination of sample sine
3.4 Sample technique
3.5 Selection and construction of research instrument
3.6 Administration of research instrument
3.7 Instrument return rate
3.8 Reference
CHAPTER FOUR
Data presentation and analysis
4.1 Presentation of data
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary of findings, recommendations and conclusion.
Summary of findings
Recommendations
Conclusions
Bibliography
List of reference
Appendices.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The local government, were created so as to enable the central government (federal government) exercise effective.
Hence, among the effective role of the local government (Kachia local government) is the provision of two way communication channel between the ltolas communities and the central government through the mobilization of human and material resources at the grass root.
The implication of the above is that the concept of rural as well as national development on effective local government leaderships and administration for its success (Ngwu 1980)
It also, implies that effective local government is required for the planning, preparation and submission of the proposal for funding and initiation of any meaningful development project in Nigeria, this goes a long way to validate the assertion made by Agu (2001) that effective and efficient leadership and administration of the local government is required for the sustenance and utilization of development project in any nation. Hence the studies of Ezike (1998:45) and Hassan (1999:66) revealed that effective implement of development project are contingent on strong leadership of the local government area, particular at the planning stage.
In rural as well as national development, the understanding of the local power structure is capable of enhancing or impeding the implementation of development project. In addition local government (Kachia) leadership is always required for the genuine involvement of the people at the grass root in any development project or activities of the government.
However, the local government (Kachia) had actually in fulfilling their roles due to both financial as well as political problem. According to Williams(1998-50)most local government in Nigeria suffer from inadequate financial resources, this was recently known as zero accusation. Kachia local government was vastly affected by this zero allocation epidemic and this affected a great number of developmental activities including the payment of its staff. Consequently, the available fund was not appropriately used due to the frustrating effort of the local government authority effort of the local government authority which was as a result of mismanagement.
The local government in some cases suffer from over-staffing to the extent that most of its recourses are spent on the payment of staff salaries.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Local government is the third tier government established to bring the presence of government nearer to the people at the grass root, with the aim of providing some basic functions or needs of life such as, food, shelter, job opportunities primary b health service, primary education, by roads, market and so on. But contrary to expectations, the local governments have noticeable failed in their constitutional responsibilities. They are generally classified as been unproductive (President Oluegun Obasanjo in his address to the nation on the reasons behind the current local government reform: 2003. This current reform going on now is one of the major reforms previously done on the local government system in Nigeria, with their sole objective of reforming the local government system to be effective and efficient and responsive and objective.
The local government is faced with a number of problems. This study is equivocally poised to investigate this problems with a view to fashion out solutions to them. Some of the problems with a view to fashion out solutions to them. Some of the problems t looks at in this study includes:
– The problem unproductively in the local government.
– The problem of unemployment and low incomes for target group.
– Lack of improved qualities in the basic needs of life- food, shelter, job opportunities health service, education etc.
– Inability of the local government council to ensures that the poorer section of the population has some share in the fruits of economic activities.
– Lack of social services and economic growth.
1.3 objective of the study
the major aims of this research is to examine the effects of local government administration on rural development using Kachia local government as a case study .
Hence, the objectives of the study are as follows:
(1) To identify the role of Kachia local government in the development of its rural area.
(2) To ascertain the effects of inefficient administration on the operations of Kachia local government particularly as it relates to rural development.
(3) To suggest the strategies for effective local government administration in Kachia local government Area.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. This study will be guided by the local research questions.
2. What are the major roles of Kachia local government in rural development.
3. What are the Obstacles, if any that militate against the implementation of rural development programmes in Anocha local government.
4. What are the strategies for effective local government administration in Kachia local government.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The findings of this research will help different categories of people to understand. This would be made possible because these problems have been earlier stated in the study to these problems.
The significance of the study those problem affecting Kachia local government and their solutions for the relevant authorities to implement for effective and efficient local government administration.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research is a survey research conducted in Kachia local government Area. The study borders on the role of local government on rural development as well as the problems hindering effective local government in Nigeria.
1.7 DEFINITIONS OF MAJOR TERMS
a. RURAL AREA. Nigeria classifies any area with a population of 20, 000 people and below as a rural area. They are those areas, which are in a state of depression, degradation and deprivation and immersed in poverty.
b. Community: Is derived from the latin word “Communis” Meaning “Common” Webster dictionary defined it as a small unit within a large one having interests, work etc. common. Maclver sees community as an area of social living marked by same degree of social coherence.
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AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE AND CHALLENGES OF NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (Case study of selected NGOs in Benin City)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria is predominantly a rural economy. If development is to take place and become self-sustaining, it must therefore, emphasis more on rural development. The core problems of widespread poverty, growing inequality, rapid population growth and rising unemployment all find their origins in the stagnation and too often retrogression of economic life in rural areas (Olatunbosun, 1995). Furthermore, most of the rural people are poor and disadvantaged. Their sufferings stem not only from low income but also from illiteracy, ill-health, ignorance and various kinds of deprivations.
It is universally acknowledged that rural areas are very important to a nation. They serve as the base for the production of food and fiber. They are also the major sources of capital formation for a country and a principal market for domestic manufactures. In general terms, the rural areas engage in primary activities that form the foundation of any economic development. Yet, despite the importance of the rural areas, they have been neglected for long (Lele, 2007). Usually, there is absence of infrastructures like (water, electricity supply and motorable roads) which improve quality of life. Indeed, the ongoing neglect of rural areas continues to widen the gap between the rural and urban areas regarding the levels of social and economic opportunities, physical development and available infrastructural services.
According to Abakare (1997), development planners have recognized the fact that the upliftment of the rural economy, vis-à-vis the rural poor and backward masses is a precondition for the overall development of the country. Successive development plans of the country, therefore emphasized on rural economic development. But in the implementation of the planned objectives, the success was rather limited due to some constraints, at the top of which was the lack of participation of the stakeholders-the rural dwellers, who hardly had any influence and control over development initiatives (Mabogunje, 2008). However, the purpose of this study is to examine the process of rural development in Nigeria with special attention to the role played and challenges encountered by non-governmental organizations in the process of rural development.
Many diverse types of bodies are now being described as NGOs. There is no generally accepted definition of an NGO and the term carries different connotations in different circumstances. Nevertheless, there are some fundamental features. Clearly an NGO must be independent from the direct control of any government. In addition, there are three other generally acceptable characteristics that exclude particular types of bodies from consideration. An NGO will not be constituted as a political party. It will be non-profit making and it will not be a criminal group, nor a violent group. However, an NGO is defined as an independent voluntary association of people acting together on a continuous basis, for some common purpose, other than achieving government office, making money or illegal activities (Okafor, 1985).
In the past few years or there about, there has been greater recognition of NGOs as important partners in rural development. The concept of rural development is conceived not only as community-centered but also people-centered which has also led to the redefinition of the role of the Non-Governmental Organizations in addressing rural development priorities. This stems from their ability to innovate and experiment with models of executing development programmes, effectively reaching out to under-served and difficult to reach areas and the marginalized sectors and groups of the society including the rural areas. NGO programmes and services exhibit qualities of being efficient and effective, client-centered, community based socially and culturally sensitive, gender responsive and sustainable (Okafor, 1985). In fact, in the past three decades, development agencies, like the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP and European Union etc, prefer channeling development assistance through them to the Developing Countries because of their ability and capacity in executing sustainable development projects. The reason is that governments in the developing countries are actually not meeting the needs of their people. And the people on the other hand are completely dissatisfied (World Bank, 1995). Either the government is not aware of the people’s disenchantment or they pretend to be ignorant of the feelings of their people (World Bank, 1995). Therefore, it takes an outsider (NGO) to alert them of their responsibilities to their citizens especially the rural communities. In fact, on the whole, the role played by government in rural communities have in some or many ways failed at addressing the key issues in rural development.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Rural development is a comprehensive concept which addresses the general problems that militate against rural dwellers and affect the quality of rural life. It is concerned with measures which mobilize domestic resources including human resources, to boost production, stimulate employment, raise rural income, reduce poverty and improve the overall standards of living of rural dwellers. Rural development consists of a number of subsets which include agricultural development, rural industrialization development, quality education, health, rural housing and transportation programmes. Different kind of NGOs in Nigeria has intervene in these areas. This study is examining their (NGOs) role and challenges in the process of rural development.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
To examine the roles of non-governmental organizations in rural development in Nigeria.
To examine the challenges of non-governmental organizations in rural development in Nigeria.
To determine the solutions to the issues of rural development in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What are the roles of non-governmental organizations in rural development in Nigeria?
2. What are the challenges of non-governmental organizations in rural development in Nigeria?
3. What are the solutions to the issues of rural development in Nigeria?
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:
The results from this study will educate the general public on the roles and challenges of non-governmental organizations in rural development in Nigeria. It will also reveal the way out of the issue of rural underdevelopment.
This research will be a contribution to the body of literature in the area of the effect of personality trait on student’s academic performance, thereby constituting the empirical literature for future research in the subject area.
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study will cover the role and challenges of non-governmental organizations in rural development in Nigeria.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work
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THE EVALUATION OF THE EXPECTATIONS OF GRADUATING RADIOGRAPHY STUDENTS IN SELECTED NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES
ABSTRACT
This work discusses the evaluation of the expectations of graduating radiography students in selected Nigeria universities. A hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed among radiography students from selected Nigeria institutions. Interviews and surveys were also conducted.
Primary and secondary data will be used in the analysis. Tables and percentages will also be used as the instrument of analysis
It will be observed therefore that the technical competence of radiography students is in high demand in the public health industry in Nigeria.
TABLE OF CONTENT:
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Statement of the Research Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Research Questions
1.6 Research Hypothesis
1.7 Conceptual and Operational Definition
1.8 Assumptions
1.9 Limitations of the Study
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Sources of Literature
2.2 The Review
2.3 Summary of Literature Review
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Method
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Research Sample
3.4 Measuring Instrument
3.5 Data Collection
3.6 Data Analysis
3.7 Expected Result
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
4.1 Data Analysis
4.2 Results
4.3 Discussion
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
5.2 Recommendations for Further Study
Bibliography
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FILM REJECT ANALYSIS AND IMAGE QUALITY IN DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF NNAMDI AZIKWE TEACHING HOSPITAL NNEWI
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
An imaging modality can be characterized by its spatial contrast and temporal resolutions. The capabilities of computed tomography (CT) to other imaging modalities can be understood in these terms. Computed tomography has become a valuable tool in medicine, industry, archaeology and other fields. Therefore, various types of CT artefacts will need to be effectively removed in order not to compromise resolutions
An image artefact is a visualized structure in the reconstructed data that is not present in the object under investigation. In CT, the term is applied to any systematic discrepancy between the CT numbers in the reconstructed image and the true attenuation coefficients of the object [5].
Artefacts are commonly encountered in clinical Computed Tomography (CT), and may obscure or simulate pathology. They also degrade the quality of the image tremendously, often obscuring valuable details and detracting from its usability [7]. There are many different types of CT artifacts, including noise, beam hardening, scatter, pseudo enhancement, motion, cone beam, helical, ring and metal artifacts.
Many sources can be the origin of CT artefacts. Most artefacts can be prevented by using new designs in scanner technology, by careful positioning of patients during scanning, and by optimum selection of scanner parameters (pitch, filter kind and delivered energy). Some others can be reduced by addressing the problem in software developments. Most artefacts appear as streak effects in CT images and some of the causes are metallic objects, beam hardening, photon starvation and motion.
It is also possible to group the origins of these artefacts into four categories: (a) physics-based artefacts, which result from the physical processes involved in the acquisition of CT data; (b) patientbased artefacts, which are caused by such factors as patient movement or the presence of metallic materials in or on the patient; (c) scanner-based artifacts, which result from imperfections in scanner function; and (d) helical and multisection artefacts, which are produced by the image reconstruction process [5].
Poor knowledge of the types and origin of artefacts encountered in clinical practice might lead to repeat investigations with the attendant radiation risks. Also, patients wait for longer hours and waste valuable man hours in the hospital. There is also more stress imposed on the machine as well as on the radiographers themselves. In the centre in focus, since the installation of a CT scanner in 2011, hundreds of CT investigations had been carried out. However, no study is known to have been done to analyze the images for artefacts. This study was therefore, planned to address that issue.
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ASSESSMENT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE OUTCOME OF HEAD OF DEPARTMENT RADIOLOGY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
The constantly changing health care environment, high technology and high cost of care provision are few factors affecting nursing practice today(Murray, 2010). Hospitals face the problem of how to strategize to achieve their goals in this competitive and changing healthcare environment. This often means constant organizational change to meet new health care challenges. Pressures to provide quality care while cost reduction measures are frequently implemented, results in high stress levels for nurses in the workplace. In addition, constant changes inevitably place considerable pressure on nurse leaders to both adapt and proactively engage their subordinates to embrace changes in the face of acute staff shortages and in some poor cases,that slowly evolving work environment. These combined factors within the hospital arena maycontribute to the lack of satisfaction nurses experience with their jobs. As remarked by Sherman (2010), this scenario desperately calls for new leaders, leaders who inspire others with the vision of what can be accomplished. In order to move forward and survive in the face of these challenges, nurse managers and their subordinates must establish positive and mutually beneficial relationships that favour increased efficiency, productivity, and job satisfaction. Quality nursing leadership is seen as a predictor of job satisfaction (Giallonardo, Wong &Iwasiw, 2010).
Job satisfaction has been described as the most important predictor for nurses’ intention to remain in their work place and is related to the feeling of employees and can be influenced by factors such as the quality of their relationship with their supervisor or employer, the quality of the physical environment in which they work, or the degree of fulfilment in their work (Edwards, Bexley & Richardson, 2011, Ritter, 2010; Mackusick&Minick, 2010).The nurse manager (NM) is officially charged with leadership of a health unit in a hospital system. No one else influences the whole health unit operation and the degree of responsiveness of both the nurses and patients than nurse managers. The quality of patient care, as well as staff recruitment and retention success are the key roles of a nurse manager (Olanrewaju, 2012). NMs as leaders,plan, coordinate and supervise day to day activities and general welfare of the nurses and patients. Their activities positively or negatively affect patient care delivery. The leadership style, skills and abilities of nurse managers are critical to the smooth operation of nursing units, the success of the hospital and by implication the entire healthcare system.
Leadership style has become an important topic of study in the management field. A good leader guides subordinates to work effectively toward organizational goals. According to Schimmoeller (2010) and Fatokun, Salaam and Ajegbomogun(2010), leadership styles can be viewed as series of managerial attitudes, behaviours, characteristics and skills based on individual and organizational values, leadership interests and reliability of employees in
different situations. Organizational success in obtaining its goals and objectives depends on managers and their leadership style.
There are several styles of leadership such as autocratic, bureaucratic, laissez-faire, charismatic, democratic, participative, situational, transactional, and transformational leadership. Not everyone agrees that a particular style of leadership will result in the most effective form of organizational behaviour. Different styles are needed for different situations and each leader needs to know when to exhibit a particular approach. Transformational and transactional leadership behaviours are known as the new leadership theories and are used by most academics who study organizational leadership(Kozier, 2007).By using appropriate leadership styles, managers can affect employee job satisfaction, commitment and productivity.
The relationship between a manager’s leadership and subordinate/employees job satisfaction is well documented (Hall, 2007; Christmas, 2008 &Ma, Lee, Yang & Chang, 2009). Job satisfaction is related to the feeling of employees and can be influenced by factors such as the quality of their relationship with their supervisor or employer, the quality of the physical environment in which they work, or the degree of fulfilment in their work. Job satisfaction can be considered from a global perspective, such as the feelings and emotions perceived by the individual employee based on work experiences (Cowin, Johnson, Craven & Marsh, 2008). It can also be explored through a facet approach- studying employee attitude towards various aspects (facets) of
their jobs. Hegney, Plank and Parker (2006) described two aspects of values,
intrinsic and extrinsic where intrinsic values refer to satisfaction inherent in the work itself (immaterial aspects of the job) such as job variety and autonomy and extrinsic values refer to material work aspects such as salary and opportunity for promotion. Job satisfaction is therefore the result of an evaluation of whether ones job meets ones needs. If one feels dissatisfied, searching for and accepting another place to work will likely occur. Job satisfaction has been described as the most important predictor for nurses’ intention to remain in their work place (Larrabee, Janney, Ostrow, Withrow, Hobbs &Burant, 2003).
Previous studies on the relationship between nurse managers’ leadership style and nurse job satisfaction byTobak andKoprak(2007) found that transformational leadership style exhibited by nurse managers in Israeli public hospitals was best suited for conflict management in an innovative but understaffed system. Similarly, a significant correlation was found to exist, in a study carried out by Sellgren (2007), between nurse manager’s leadership behaviour and job satisfaction in the Karolinska hospital in Stockholm. If the leadership style necessary to manage the present challenging nurses’ work environment is lacking, there is a potential for continued increase in the nursing shortage and its attendant grave consequences.
Statement of the problem
In the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) ItukuOzalla, the researcher observed gross shortage of nurses in all the nursing units. The record from the nursing service department shows a total number of 588 nurses in UNTH of which 444 were deployed to 26 wards and special clinics of the hospital as at the time of this study. The researcher also observed that, in a ward of 28 to 30 patients, 2 to 3 nurses were seen caring for patients during the day as against 1:6 ratio recommended by WHO (2011) and 1:4-5 (for general wards) and 1:1-3 ( for intensive care units) recommended by Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (N&MCN, 2005). Records from the department also revealed that 80 nurses left UNTH within the past 3 years (2009-2012). Although death and retirement were contributory to this situation, voluntary resignations also accounted forstaff loss during the period. Nursing staff shortage in UNTH is therefore, obvious given by these statistics. Hall (2007) explained that some of the reasons for nursing staff shortage are due to work stress, physical demands/workload, lack of advancement opportunities, and low pay. MacKusick and Minick (2010) went further to suggest that some of the reasons for the shortage include job dissatisfaction and the challenging relationships among members of the healthcare team. Since a causal relationship has been shown to exist between relationships amongst the healthcare team and job satisfaction by some authors (Cowin, 2008, Ritter, 2010), the leadership style exhibited by nurse managers can either enhance or
retard job satisfaction. This suggests that the acute nursing staff shortage in
UNTH, which is exacerbated by mass loss of nurses due to retirement, may affect the services and job satisfaction of nurses. It is therefore, necessary to empirically determine the leadership styles employed by the nurse managers in UNTH and also how these styles relate with job satisfaction of nurses in this situation of acute shortage of nurses observed in (UNTH) ItukuOzalla Enugu.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived leadership styles of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in University of Nigeria Teaching hospitals, Ituku-Ozalla Enugu
The specific objectives of this study are to:
1. determinethe leadership styles utilized by nurse managers as perceived by nurses at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH).
2. determinethe level of job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH.
3. identifythe relationship between transformational leadership styles and job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH.
4. identifythe relationship between transactional leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH.
5. identifythe relationship between laissez-faire leadership style of nurse managers and nurses’ job satisfaction in UNTH.
Research questions
1. What is the perceived leadership style(s) utilized by nurse managers in UNTH?
2. What is the level of job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH?
3. What is the relationship between leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH?
Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses guided the study:
1. There is no significant relationship between transformational leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH.
2. There is no significant relationship between transactional leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH.
3. There is no significant relationship between laissez-faire leadership style of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses in UNTH.
Significance of the study
This study will be of great significance to the nurse managers, nurse administrators, patients and the hospital. The finding from this study willprovide a basis for the determination of appropriate leadership style(s) to be used by nurse managers, capable of enhancing job satisfaction nation-wide. Findings from this study can be utilized to educate nurse managers on effective leadership styles and how these styles affect job satisfaction of nurses. By
implementing preferred leadership styles, job satisfaction of nurses will
increase, lowering turnover rates in hospitals and an overall decrease in the amount of money spent for hiring and orientating new employees. For nurse administrators, the results of this study have numerous implications for management practice. Nurses’ satisfaction will be seen by the patient in the form of increased patient care quality. This will in turn create increased patient satisfaction and will reflect a positive view of the hospital by the community. The hospital will also benefit from the satisfaction of registered nurses as seen by an increase in productivity, efficiency and retention.
Scope of the study
This study focused on the relationship between leadership styles of nurse managers and job satisfaction of nurses. It was confined to examining the relationship between transformational, transactional and laissez faire leadership styles on one hand and job satisfaction of nurses on the other. Twenty-six wards in UNTH, where direct nursing care is applied was examined. The study was delimited to nursing personnel categorized into management and subordinate cadres who have spent a minimum period of two years in the wards.
Operational definition of terms
For the purpose of this study the following terms were defined operationally: Leadership style: This strictly refers to the transformational, transactional and laissez-faireleadership styles.
Transformational leadership: is a synthesis of all leadership styles that are essentially employee oriented and includes participatory, democratic, charismatic and situational leadership styles.
Transactional leadership:refers to all leadership styles that are strictly production centred and includes autocratic and bureaucratic leadership styles. Laissez-faire leadership:refers to all leadership styles that are passive in nature whereby the leader adopts a hands-off approach to leadership.
Job satisfaction:refers to the feeling a nurse has about the job being performed. In other words what the nurse likes or dislikes about the job. General characteristics of the job such as pay, promotion, supervision, working conditions and relationships with co-workers were examined.
Nurse Managers: refers to nurses who are in-charge of wards/units and range from the ACNO, CNO to the Deputy Director Nursing (DDN) cadre.
Nurses: refers to non-managerial cadre of nurses in UNTH. They are any of the Principal Nursing Officers (PNO), Senior Nursing Officers (SNO),Senior Nursing Officers (SNO), Senior Nursing Sisters (SNS), Nursing Officer I and II, Nursing Sisters working in UNTH.
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THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The expediency for the creation of local government anywhere in the world stems from the need to facilitate development at the grassroots. The importance of local government is a function of its ability to generate sense of belongingness, safety and satisfaction among its populace. All forms of government, regimes or political systems have so far ensured the attainment of this goal. Such strategy for ensuring national administrative development and political efficacy is found in the concept and practice of local government. Whatever is the mode of government, local government has been essentially regarded as the path to, and guarantor of, national integration, administration and development.
In Nigeria’s socio-political context, with multiplicity of culture, diversity of languages and differentiated needs and means, the importance of such an organization in fostering the needed national consciousness, unity and relative uniformity as well as preservation of peculiar diversities cannot be over-emphasized. Central to the creation of local government, however, is its ability to facilitate an avenue through which government and the people intermix, relate and more quickly than any other means resolve or dissolve issues that may have heated the system. Local government has been perceived as a panacea for the diverse problems of the diverse people with diverse culture.
As important as this tier of government has been, there seems to be some impediments that have been infringing on its performance and functions in recent times. These impediments range from political but undue interference of the higher
levels of government i.e. federal and state governments, bribery and corruption to embezzlement and gross inadequacy of well-trained and qualified personnel to mention a few.
According to Nnoli (1981:36) and Rodney (1972:11), all people have shown a capacity for independently increasing their ability to live more satisfactory life than before. This is then a progressive process that has no end.
A local government is semi-autonomous territorial unit created by the constitution or general laws of a state to undertake certain functions within specified or limited geographical area. According to Agbakoba (2004:3), a local government is a political and administrative unit that is empowered by law to administer a specified locality. It involves philosophical commitment to the idea of community participation in government at grassroots level.
There is general assumption among scholars and practitioners, that local government are not only established as representative organ but also as a channel through which goods and services are delivered to the people within the framework of laws establishing them.
In fact, democracy itself originated and developed along the line of local government initiatives. This is why the executive, legislative and judicial arms of these governments are elected or appointed as the case may be. In Nigeria, local government is created to bring government closer to the people. The definition of local government by the Nigerian Federal Government leaves one with no iota of doubt that it is largely both theoretically sound and service oriented to the people. It talks of representative councils with substantial control over local affairs, for the provision of services and implementation of projects in their areas, to complement the activities of both the State and Federal governments. The definition also amply
recognizes the need for local government autonomy as the substantial control of local governments is aimed at staff, institutional and financial matters, among others (Nigeria, 1976). In addition to the above, the Nigerian Federal Government is one of the few governments in the world perhaps in addition to Brazil (Erero, 1998) that have elevated LGs to a third tier of government. By so doing, the State governments do not exercise absolute controls over local governments.
Therefore, the work seeks to contribute in illuminating the actual status of Warri North local government as regard community or rural development which it purports to be raison d’etre of its existence. The empirical analysis will show whether creation of local government is really for the sake of ensuring grassroots development or mere political compensation for the government loyalists. It is in this light that we chose to study the topic.
Specifically, the paper carefully, critically and objectively examines operational definitions, local government, and development and opinion of the people expressed through the print media about the impact of the Warri North local government council in their areas. And of course, germane recommendations which emanate from the study are provided for the improvement of local government in the development of the localities/communities.
1.2 Statement of Problem
The need to catalyze balanced development, maximize citizens’ participation, and arouse government response necessitates the creation of the local government. The local government serves as a form of political and administrative structure facilitating decentralization, national integration, efficiency in governance, and a sense of belonging at the grassroots. The local government is a unit of administration all over the world (Agagu, 2004).
Local government has been the root of development in terms of dealings with the people which democracy is centred upon. Hence, local government is visibly seen as co-agent of rural development and as partners in progress with both states and federal governments in rural developments.
To this end, this study sets out to investigate the impact of local government on rural/grass root development with emphasis on Warri North Local Government of Delta State. Knowing the roles the government needs to play in development of any society and the obvious inability of the national and state governments in the task of rural areas, Local government has been created essentially to compliment the efforts of the states and national government in the task of rural development. Nevertheless, abject poverty and underdevelopment remains a common feature in these rural communities.
Thus, in pursuance of the central problem in this research a number of questions have been raised (posed) for this research purpose. They are:
i) Has Warri North local government Area contributed substantially to rural development?
ii) Does Inadequacy of Skilled Workers (like qualified engineers of all types, medical doctors etc) affect the ability Warri North local government council in carrying out rural development programme?
iii) Does inadequate financing of the local government by the state and federal government affect the ability of Warri North local government council to contribute to rural development?
1.3 Objectives of Study
The broad objective of this study is to assess the performance of Warri North local government council in the area of rural development.
The specific objectives of the study are as follows.
1. To ascertain whether Warri North local government has contributed substantially to rural development.
2. To find out if inadequacy of skilled workers (like qualified engineers all types, medical doctors, etc) affect the ability of Warri North local government council in carrying out rural development programme.
3. To verify whether inadequate financing by both state and federal governments hinders the council in carrying out developmental programmes.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the study provides a theoretical framework for the understanding of the role of local government in rural development in Nigeria. Therefore considering the pivotal role of local government in development in general, such information will be of immense help for policy formulation on the development of grassroots. The result of the study will equally be of help to other researchers who may want to research on such topic or related topics on development in the academia in the future.
On the practical significance, the study will draw attention of, and enlighten both the stakeholders and those who implement policies on rural development in Nigeria who may not really understand the central role of rural development on the crucial and inescapable role of local government system. As a result, the rural dwellers will endeavour to participate full in grassroots democratization and development, while those who implement policy on development in Nigeria will become dedicated to policy formulation, recommendations and implementation.
1.6 Operational Definition of Concept
Grassroots/Rural development: The term grassroots development as used in this study refers to the act or process of developing and empowering the well-being of the vast majority of the rural dwellers through the provision of basic social and economic infrastructures. Hence, it is a development from below. According to Todaro (1985) grassroots development is an advancement that makes life more meaningful in all its entirety. Whether political, economic, socio-cultural and infrastructural.
Rural Dwellers
Rural dwellers are the people living in the remote areas of a country and lack basic infrastructure like good road network, pipe borne water, electricity, good health facility etc. The term refers to the ordinary people who are far from political decision making process at the centre. These groups includes small scale farmers, tenants, etc who seek livelihood in the rural areas.
Democracy/local government
The term democracy “literally signifies” the rule of the people: the term democracy as it is used in the study synchronizes with Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy. Gauba (1981:421) quoting Lincoln and it reads: Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people. It implies that ultimate authority of government is vested in the common people so that the public policy is made to conform to the will of the people and to serve the interests of the people.
From the foregoing, one can rightly say that democracy is all about “peoples” participation in government–and local government. Therefore, Democracy and local government are inseparable and are synonymous.
1.7 Literature Review
1.7.1 Local Government and Rural Development
Communal effort has not been a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the time of primitive communalism when people searched for their living communally. In the early state of man, he always sought ways of conquering nature. Bryne (1983:55) argues that the concept of community development is not new, that rather it is an old ideology. The reality in Bentham’s assertion that community development is a man in the society can be sustained by the fact that communities throughout history constructed and maintained their roads, bridges, square, sunk their well for good drinking water supply, and constructed their markets, village churches and village halls by community efforts.
Lawal, (2008:56) community development is not new in Nigeria, that what is actually new nowadays in community development are techniques and methods through which new pattern of leadership emerges from the rank and file.
Dare, (1989:38) in his own contribution argues that though local government is a veritable vehicle for community development, most local government have not made appreciate impact in this direction. He attributes the problem to the myriad of functions allocated to local government without commensurate financial backing.
Ogunna (1980:44) attributed the low performance of local government to the following factors; inadequate revenue, low executive capacity, poor and inadequate working materials, incompetence and ineptitude of existing staff and excessive control by the state government which result in delays and red-tapism. The solution, he suggested, lies in the review of the local government system particularly in areas of financial relationship with the state government and personnel. This control of local
government was made clear in the implementation, guideline on the application of the civil service. Reform in the local government service.
Okunade, (1988:).expressing his own idea, state that the spread of counties has provided the awareness among rural dwellers, and has provided the existence for a concept of the process of community development and of project which have been set in motion since the United National Organization development its concepts since thirty years ago. Community development draw greater inspiration from the desire for a change and in the ability of man to learn and charge through the voluntary method, (that is, free from coercion) and through the participation of individuals and groups in the development process for the achievement of some definite goals.
According to Sehinde, (2008:9) community development is:
A process of education by which people of all ages and interest in the community, learn to share their thoughts, their ideas, the participation, their joys and their sorrows and in a large measures to mould and shape the communal destiny for themselves. It is a process of self discovery by the while the people of a community learn to identify and solve their community problems.
A firm grasp at their beliefs and value system will throw light on what the community accepts as good and bad, as right or wrong. In turn, changes achieved by community effort can influence the beliefs and value system of a community. It is necessary to stimulate the self-help spirit of the people by mobilizing them for communal efforts, which should be sustained with the assistance of the government. Blue Print for rural development, argues that for effective implementation of strategies for community development the town and community unions, age grades, etc should be linked with government. This idea he said is to involve the community people fully through their union, age grades and other similar policies that are designed to improve their economic, social, political and cultural development. He stated that this would enable them to make positive contributions to both rural and national development. The community union and age grade in every community have usually served as point of articulation and fully aware of the needs of the people. However, if they are fully integrated into the planning stage of development project, a lot will be achieved.
Writing on rural development in Nigeria, Mabogunje, (1992:191) in his book “leading issues in Nigerian Rural Development” accused successive Nigerian government at being previous regimes, rather than developing the rural areas. He content that this is the general pattern all over the third world countries. Mabogunje, remarked that many strategies such as “authoritarian hand out” from the administration which prescribed the facilities suitable for the rural areas and two, the so-called development from below have been tried in the past, in the attempt to solve rural poverty in Nigeria. These strategies have however not proved successful; he looks at rural development problem such as lack of co-ordinated community development programmes, manpower problems of infrastructure, problem of relevant rural education. He suggest solutions to these problems, which include clear understanding of the concept community development, an integrated development programmes, provision of infrastructure, relevance at rural education to the peculiar need and aspiration of the rural areas.
Local government and rural development in Nigeria, Olowo, et al., and (1991) describes government approach to rural development as a more sham. According to him, government has succeeded in imposing development programme on the rural masses, such programme he argues, only benefited a few rich and powerful urban elite. He calls for a model of rural development, which involves the genuine participation of the rural people. Such he continues will be relatively independent of centralized urban-oriented bureaucratic machines.
Nwaka, (1999:33-36) on his part argued that government imposition of rural development programme on the communities have been Cog in the wheal of rural development. As he put it, government have often set community development; priorities without the participation of the target or relevant communities. He suggests
that since government, communities are the engines of growth; government should play down its excessive control in betting out development goals and priorities for local communities.
Nnoli, (1980) sees self-help, as a strategy for rural development as a form of exploitation because, according to him, for the rural people it is viewed as the task resort to their survival due to government neglect. According to him, the community development process arises from the crying need of the rural population for social welfare services, unwillingness of the rural class to provide these amenities, the exploitation of the ruling class of the competition among communities for those social artefacts which are deemed to reflect social progress, and the exploitation by the ruling class at the tendency by Nigerians to invest more time, energy and resources and those tasks approved by their communities than those sanctioned by the national collectively via-the-state.
Okoli, (2000) in his book contends that the British colonialists in Nigeria hatched community development ideology in order to under develop the people through his negative manipulation strategy. He regrets that his strategy has continued to be employed by indigenous rulers in the post-colonial state. He further contends that this strategy predicated upon the colonial policy of economic exploitation of the local area in an instrument used to sustain the self-interest of the ruling classes while the rural communities suffer under poor, hash and stagnated conditions.
Aborisade (1988) in his book highlighted the various development programmes designed by successive governments in Nigeria, which aimed at developing the rural communities. He gives an example of River Basin and Rural Development Authorities established in 1975 to promote rural development. He laments that in practice the scheme bloated bureaucracies feeding on mega million
naira contracts for irrigation and other agricultural projects while the rural areas for which they are meant seemed to have recorded deeper in debilitating poverty.
Finally, from the extensive review of literature, it is obvious that scholars like Akpan, (1982), Olisa (1992) and Olowu (1988) regretted that rural development activities and programmes of the past decades of national independence have not transformed the country’s rural areas in the modern, well supplied contended that prosperous population envisaged are the beginning of national sovereignty. They concluded that in terms at the number of programmes identification pursued, rural development in Nigeria has made little transformatary impact. They cite basic social services, public utilities and essential infrastructure as still being woefully inadequate in almost all corners of the country.
1.7.2 Inadequate Finance and Rural Development
One of the perennial problems which has not only defied all past attempts at permanent solution, but also has a tendency for evoking high emotions on the part of all concerned (each time it is brought forth for discussion or analysis) is the issue of equitable revenue allocation in Nigeria. It is an issue which has been politicised by successive administrations in Nigeria both Military and civilian regimes. Indeed, in virtually all country in which the constitution shares power between the central and regional or state governments and, for each level to be “within a sphere co-ordinate and independent” (Wheare 1963:93) enough resources need be allocated to each tier to justify their existence.
Perhaps, more important at this juncture is a consideration of the adequacy of the total revenue profile of LGs, from all sources, for their operations. In the works of Ikelegbe, (2005) and Aghayere, (2008) they are of the view that local governments obtain adequate revenue for their operations. However, as Ikelegbe (2005:54), for
example, puts it, there is ‘tremendous strengthening of local government funding, structuring, autonomy and democratization. Adequate finance is an indispensible tool for local government administration and the execution of project for which it was not up.
According to Orewa (1968:225) the raison d’être of local authority is to collect it revenue efficiently and to use such revenue to prove many social service as possible for its tax payers while at the same time maintaining a reasonable amount reserve tide it over any period of financial stringency. Hence the ability of local authorities to generate revenue to manage it properly. Blau and Scout as a cited by Mukoro, (2001:1) in their local government have noted that they do not exist but in communities and societies and have roots in large social system.
Following from the foregoing, the basic environment of a local in Nigeria with regard to revenue generation can be identified based on the provision at chapter (vi)
(c) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which deals with public revenue and the fourth schedule there provides functions of a local government council section 162 (of chapter (vi) such section 3,5,6,7 and 8) provide that “Any amount standing to the credit of the federation account and shall be distributed among the federal and state government council in such state on such terms and in manner as may be presided by the National Assembly.
According to Okoli (1998:125), despite the elaborate provision made in both decree No. 36 of 1998 and 1999 constitution for the financial autonomy of the local government doubt still remains as to the financial relationships among the three tier of government for one thing the direct funding of the local government which has been jettisoned by the ambiguities in the provision of 1999 constitution as far as finance of the local government are concerned.
The financial crisis of most local government in developing counties is worsened by the fact that they are located in the rural areas. As a result of rural poverty, they are unable to generate enough internal revenue. They, therefore, rely mainly on statutory allocation from the federal government which is usually inadequate for any meaningful development activity. As aptly stated in the local government Yearbook (1998:18).
Adedeji (2000:96) asserts that the success or failure and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of local government depends on the financial resources available to the individuals local authorities and the way the resources are utilized indeed the problem associated with inadequacy of finding continue to remain quite high among factors most frequently of local government to effectively perform their statutorily developed function.
Akpan, (1965:126) argued that the bottom line in judging the effectiveness of local government is the amount of funds at their disposal. He notes that “the success of a local authority is often measured in terms of its ability to provide services to the public. These services cost money”, which the local government do not have sufficiency.
Ogbonnia (2004:34) say’s that other sources of local government revenue depend on the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the council. He further explains that, there are several ways the council can generate funds but the major problems lies in the ability of the chairman to look inwards to create means of generating funds for the council.
The inadequacies of operational and capital funds constitute a set-back on local government implementation of regular services and investment programmes. Consequently, most local government can only pay workers salaries and take care of
recruitment expenditure. In the case of Nigeria, the financial crisis in the local government has been worsened by the failure of the Federal Government to recognize the new local government created by some states. The state governors new use part of statutory allocations meant for the newly created ones, which in Enugu referred to as development centres (Ezeani, 2004).
1.7.3 Paucity of Skilled Manpower and Rural Development
When we are talking about manpower, we are referring to human resources. Manpower to often taken as the most important resources of an organization because other resources are harnessed to meet the need to men. This problem has been a major constraints to the effectiveness and efficiency of local government in Nigeria vis-à-vis Warri North local government.
Adewumi (198), Nkala (1985), Onah (1995) and Nkala (1985), noted that at the inception of democratic local government system in the former Eastern region of Nigeria in 1950, early recruits into the local government service were mainly “Sons of the soil”. Orewa and Adewumi (1983) rightly stated that recruitment based on patronage, have created problems of redundancy in local governments where stern measures like termination of appointment and suspension of staff are rarely contemplated.
There is no doubt that the effectiveness of any organization to a large extent depend on the calibre of its staff. The local government does not have enough graduates employed in its services. The people who work in the local government are employed based on favouritism and not on merit. Most of the staffs or the council don’t know what is expected of them as local government staff. Most of them did not go beyond primary school, and therefore cannot perform well. They don’t even know
the function of the department they found themselves let alone the work they expected to perform, and this contributes in affecting the rural development.
Staff training and development is another important aspect that has been neglected in local councils. According to Blum and Mayor (1976), effective training programmes can result in increased production, reduced labour turnover, and greater employee satisfaction.
The people who work in the community development department because of lack of skills for the nature of their job use wrong approach or measure in appealing to the communities to contribute and take part in community development.
According to Onah (1995:114), the inability to provide management training in areas of operations other than finance and general administration such as engineers, architects, accountant, doctors, nurses, agriculture extension workers etc continues to militate against effective performance in most local governments in Nigeria.
In an effort to address this quandary of manpower in terms of (skilled manpower like Engineers and Doctors and Administrators) in local government system in Nigeria, the federal military government in 1979 introduced three university-based Department of Public Administration and local government: University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ille-Ife Ezeani (2004:183-184).
This paper intends to study local government as an instrument of rural development and see if there has been any significant change in terms of the effect in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.
1.8 Theoretical Framework
The theory which informs our discussion of local government and rural development, a study of Warri North local government council is the general systems
theory. The scholar most associated with this theory is Easton (1965) “sees the political system as a set of interrelated and reciprocally regulated patterns of actions and orientation, pattern that cluster together in equilibrium and that have certain needs of maintenance and survival. It is a phenomenon of whatever type, including physical, biological, social, political, etc., which is an organized whole with identifiable, interrelated structures delineating it from the environment (supra system) in which it is located and with which it interacts, processing the inputs from it into outputs for it. The general systems theory seeks to argue that every system, including political system, has subsystems which make up the entire system. They are assigned functions and provided with enabling empowerment, including resources, appropriate authority, etc. to enable them discharge their responsibilities optimally. Where this is the case, there is said to be homeostasis (stability) in the political system. On the other hand, instability reigns in the political system where the contrary is the case and the subsystems and entire system are also unable to function optimally.
Input and output analysis of a political system is very important. A political system is said to obtain its inputs (demands, supports, liberty or autonomy, cooperation, criticisms, resources, information, direct labour, etc.) from the environment. These inputs are what the subsystems employ to discharge their responsibilities, so that the political system can send out its outputs into the environment and obtain further inputs for its operations.
HOW TO RECEIVE PROJECT MATERIAL(S)
After paying the appropriate amount (#5,000) into our bank Account below, send the following information to
08068231953 or 08168759420
(1) Your project topics
(2) Email Address
(3) Payment Name
(4) Teller Number
We will send your material(s) after we receive bank alert
BANK ACCOUNTS
Account Name: AMUTAH DANIEL CHUKWUDI
Account Number: 0046579864
Bank: GTBank.
OR
Account Name: AMUTAH DANIEL CHUKWUDI
Account Number: 3139283609
Bank: FIRST BANK
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL:
08068231953 or 08168759420