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THE USE OF
SYNERGY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
ABSTRACT
Development
in Nigeria starts from the grassroot. Negligence of local government areas in
political administration in Nigeria has caused impediments to development and
economic growth in Nigeria. It is disastrous that a Nation like Nigeria does
not pay much attention to the needs of the local government. Notwithstanding
much effort is needed on the part of each individual. If individuals synergize,
they will achieve their vision.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Any person, who wants to know why
Nigeria is not developing as rapidly as it should, should visit any of the
local government areas. Life is pressed out of almost everything. The people
are financing varied development projects (community hospital, road
construction, rural electrification, water projects, etc), because monthly
allocation to local councils are not properly utilized.
Local governments, at least in
principle, deal with grassroots politics (keeping law and order, basic
sanitation, constructing and maintaining local roads, supplying water,
administering local schools, providing skill training and employment for
residents, et cetera). However, community development is “the process or effort
of building communities on a local level with emphasis on development programs
are aimed at improving the quality of life of the people in the community.
Are local government administrators in
Nigeria performing their functions? If not what are the obstacles?
Local
government areas are supposed to be the engines of national development. A
quiet rural community grows into a busting city, and the local leader makes
this possible. However, in developed societies, when people are tired of loving
in the cities they relocate to rural communities where life is less strenuous.
However, the opposite is the case in Nigeria; living in a rural community is
difficult, because nothing works, as it should. The local government
administrators are part of the problem. Like their counterparts at the federal
and state levels, they are mired in pursuit of personal goals at the expense of
broader community interests
As noted
earlier, life in the local areas is a bit more difficult that that in cities,
party, because some of the council administrators lack the skills and knowledge
to perform their duties. An administrator should understand what community
development is, and what it takes to develop an economically distressed
community. Like a business manger who determines what should be produced, an
administrator directs and determines the pace of community development. But, an
individual cannot give what he/ she does not have.
To develop
and implement good policies and administrator must have the skill to develop
and analyze social an economic data. Although, data collection and analysis is
a serious problem in government agencies in Nigeria, it is more problematic at
he local areas. One cannot over emphasize he importance of reliable data. In
particular, demographic date helps to identify the buying power and market size
of a community and provides investors with information about the economic
health of an area.
There are
inconsistencies and organized chaos in local government administration in
Nigeria. The system has elected local government chairs and appointed
administrators, and some states are creating development center’ in the local
government areas. All these are conduits to channel public funds to cronies of
state governors. As mentioned earlier, some of the individuals who administer
these ‘looting carter’s are dangerously lacking in the skill and knowledge to
develop a community. As it were you cannot give a backbone to an invertebrate;
one of such administrators’ in Imo state who parades himself as a “Dr (and
other bogus titles) does not even posses a high school diploma. What type of
leadership would such a fraudulent and hollow individual provide a community?
There are business opportunities in rural in communities, but they lack
requisite infrastructure to lure entrepreneurs and investors. For any community
to attract new investment and foster economic growth and development it should
have basic infrastructure, effective leadership, and an environment conductive
for human habitation, because bad environment cause health problems and
negatively impacts property values. To improve their “bad image” local
government administrators should change the way they perform their duties. For
instance, they (with their officials) should educate property owners news that
there are no access roads to many of the million-dollar residential and
commercial buildings across cites and communities in Nigeria. The government (local,
state, federal) should also define (zone) residential and business districts,
establish building standard (there have been spate of building collapses
lately) and ensure proper enforcement. Oddly, people are known to live in
business zones, set up structures without approval, and when disasters strike
families are affected.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Failed
Development Vision, Political Leadership And Nigeria’s Underdevelopment
Immediately
after the Nigeria civil war in January 1970, the Gowon-led federal government
(1966-1975) came up with the vision of the 3Rs. Reintegration, Rehabilitation
and Reconstruction, as part of a follow-up development plan to the No victor,
no vanquished declaration to end that war. Till date, marginalization, which
led to the war, has not become anachronistic in Nigeria. Rather, ethnic militia
and insecurity are tools for resisting continued grave marginalization of some
section of the country, which unarguably account for the human and material
resources of the nation. In burgeoning poverty, the people are far from being
rehabilitated and the economy has degenerated overmuch from the pre-war
situation of the early 1960s, when the Eastern Nigeria’s economy, for instance,
was adjusted one of the fastest growing economies in the world (Eneh, 2005).
The Gowon
administration also launched the Second National Development Plan with 5 main
goals of building: (1) A Free And Democratic society, (2) A just and
egalitarian society, (3) A united, strong and self-reliant economy, (4) A great
and dynamic economy and (5) a land of bright opportunities for all citizens
(Eneh, 2008; Onah, 2006b).
Over 37
years after the Plan was launched in 1970, none of its 5 goals has been
achieved. Instead of a free and democratic society, we have a militarized
Nigerian society, with a great havoc done to the psyche of the citizenry. For a
just and an egalitarian society, we have injustice and insecurity conundrum
characterized by child abuse, ritual murder and extra-judicial killing,
cultism, hostage-taking, ethnic and religious riots. Far from being united,
strong and self-reliant, the Nigerian nation is divided along tribal and
religious lines. Patriotism is a stranger to an average Nigerian’s lexicon, the
federal character and Nigerian factor having replaced merit and eights. Rather
than offer opportunities for all citizens, Nigeria is a land of failed people,
with corruption, stealing and unemployment characterizing the country’s
political leadership. Wrong reactions or responses to this ugly situation
include brain-drain (Eneh, 2008).
Under the
cover of addressing poverty and the food needs of the nation, the same
administration also came up in 1972 with many programmes, including the Import
Substitution Programme, the National Accelerated Food Production Programme and
the Nigerian Agricultural and Co-operative Bank. But, today, the country is
worse off with import dependency and food insecurity (Enhe, 2008).
Similarly,
the Obasanjo-led federal government of 1976 – 1979 introduced the operation
feed the nation. The Shagari government of 1979-1983 came up with green
revolution. The Buhari/Idiagbon administration 1983 – 1985 introduced the war
against indiscipline, to which the Abacha government added corruption, to get
war against indiscipline and corruption. The Abacha-led government also
baptized the Babangida’s Better Life Programme to obtain the Family Economic
Advancement Programme and introduced the Vision 2010. The Babagida-led
government of 1985 – 1993, known for political Maradonaism and self-styled evil
genius, had the longest list of development visions and programmes, including
the National directorate of Employment, the Directorate for foods, Roads and
Rural Infrastructure, the Better Life Programme, People Bank, Community Bank
and the National Economic Reconstruction Fund. The Obasanjo-led Third Republic
of 1999 – 2007 came up with the National Poverty Eradication Programme,
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), the sectoral
reform agenda and mentioned the Vision 2020 (Onah, 2006a; Abdphlhamid, 2008).
These
development visions, political and programmes are often paraded alongside the
international goals, treaties, conventions, protocols, etc., which the
political leaders merely parrot. Usually, the National Planning Commission
(NPC) goes into elaborate packaging of the visions, programmes or policies. For
example, the NEEDs was so well packaged to the point of having blueprints for
the State level programme State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies
(SEEDS); the local government level programme Local Economic Empowerment and
Development Strategies (LEEDS) and the community level programme Community
Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (CEEDS).
The
Yar-Adua-led federal government has a 7-point agenda of power and energy,
agriculture and food security, wealth creation and employment generation,
qualitative and functional education, the Niger Delta, mass transportation and
land reforms (Newwatch, 2008). Within 16 months, it has been white-washed or
modified to: electoral reform, rule of law, the Niger Delta, power and energy
sector, rebuilding human capital, accelerating economic reforms and security
reforms and security (Daily Times, 2008).
Yet, neither
the first nor the second version can be disntinquished form the NEEDS, the
Phase 1 (2004 – 2007) of which has been adjusted a failure. But, they are being
given flesh and articulated as fresh vision documents. Most policies in Nigeria
are wonderful, but ultimate summersault, abandonment or failure awaits them.
Nigeria is replete with brilliant, impeccable and well written policies. The
problem is implementation. The logical and expensively produced policies often
end there as policies. Weak efforst at implementation often rubbish them
through corruption. Thus, NEEDS have failed to sort out needs (Ebigbo, 2008).
Onah (2006)
opines that all development visions and programmes fail in Nigeria because of poor handling by
corruption and poor/hungry politicians/bureaucrats, leading to growing poverty
symptoms, including electoral frauds; untrue and inefficient representatives;
violence: religious crises, crises in Middle belt and Niger Delta regions,
hostage taking and cult; food insecurity; low agricultural production;
illiterarcy (that also weakens democracy); crime; high mortality and morbility
and morbidity rates; prostitution and poor health and national image; low GDP
and GNP and high unemployment rate.
Reacting to
a report, Aniekpon (2008) challenged Nigerian leaders, rulers and political
heavyweights to think of where Nigeria was heading for if an individual could
burn a whopping sum of N270 million and gather only the ash for a fetish deal,
in a country of grinding poverty where many homes cannot solve even problems
that may require just N100.
Nigeria
dropped in global economic ranking to 101st position out of 125 nations studied
and the economy is still burdened with double-digit inflation, estimated at 13%
and deteriorating infrastructure. Nigeria was placed 159th out of 177 countries
of the world examined for the human development. Nigeria also lost 34 places
(falling to rank 1120 in the basic requirements sub-index, which highlights the
fundamentals for achieving sustainable growth, namely strong institutions,
adequate infrastructure, a supportive macro-economic environment and good basic
health and education (Famakinwa, 2006).
The World
Bank estimated that 50% of the federal roads have deteriorated in the last 6
years to the extent that it costs more to send goods from Lagos to Maiduguri than
to send them to Europe. Due to the poor conditions of the roads, 33,600 people
died in road accidents from year 2001 to 2005, while 34,200 people sustained
various degrees of injuries during the period. The power sector is in perpetual
crises and cannot drive meaningful development (Onah, 2006b).
Although,
there is an overdose of natural water in Nigeria, citizens groan daily under
the weight of lack of safe domestic water. The average urban resident, who
cannot afford to sink a borehole, resort to fetching water for domestic purpose
from shallow wells or from streams up to 3-hour walking distances away. At the
current estimated 5.3% rate, urbanization in Nigeria is among the highest in
the world. Graduate unemployment has occasioned sophisticated crimes and social
vices of alarming dimensions leading to palpable security conundrum, manifested
in youth restiveness, cultism in schools, unprecedented wave of armed robbery,
drug addiction and the attendant mental derangement, etc. Lack of jobs is
pushing increasing number of Nigerian youth into the commercial auto transport
business, where a regrettable number of them encounter road mishaps on daily
basis (Eneh, 2008).
The
incidence of street children, hazardous and exploitative child labour, child
unemployment, poor nutrition and health, commercial sexual exploitation, girl
prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, juvenile abortion and
wastage/spilling of human lives/blood, teenage motherhood and child abandonment
and dumping on the street, stunting and wasting (among under-five children),
child begging, youth drug addiction,
delinquency and crimes with the danger of the child becoming hardened
criminals and various other vicious means of livelihood, as well as various
harmful traditional practices against women remain nagging symptoms of
underdevelopment and deepening poverty in Nigeria. With the Nigerian population
quite (47% under-18 and 20% under-5), it is quite worrisome that about 570,000
nigerians were infected with the Himan Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in 1999
(FOS and United Nations Children’s Fund, 1999).
Agbase
(2008_ noted “Nigeria remains the most populous black nation in the title
world, rich in human and vast mineral, natural and agriculture resources, with
great scholars and dazzling footballers and has the most vibrant, irresponsible
and iconoclastic press in Africa, nay the third world. It mints more
billionaires in a year than all other African countries put together can come
close to in a decade. Its democracy is a government of contracts and
contractors by the few and for the few while the people wallow in poverty and
misery in the midst of plenty”.
Abu (2008)
opines that corruption is Nigeria’s number one enemy. It is responsible for
nearly all the pains that we now experience as a nation and as individual
Nigerians. Corruption has crippled our economy, ruined our roads, health and
educational institutions. It put so much money in the pockets of a few
privileged people and rendered the vast majority of the people poor. The level
of improvement is getting more acute and the pains of the even growing legion
of the poor become very unbearable.
Amidst
corruption in Nigeria, vision, policy, planm politics, principle, conscience,
wealth, commerce, pleasure/sports, knowledge, science, worship and morality are
all corrupt. In its eight years of existence, the Independent Corruption
Practices (and other related offences) Commission, ICPC, has remineded a
toothless bulldog, having very little to show as evidence of its success in the
war against corruption. It almost watches like a spectator in the war against
corruption. On the other hand, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, another anti-graft agency/faces enormous challenges from indicated former
public office holders, who use their loots to buy their ways to freedom
(Akintunde, 2008).
As the
erstwhile Minster of National Planning confirmed, the circumstances are still
so devastating for the vast majority of Nigerians in spite of the nation’s
enormous endowments/ because we have no serious intention to turn thinking
around or lack the capacity to face the challenges or still searching for the
right strategies to tackle the core issues of true development (Dagash, 2008).
Proffering a
solution, Nwosu (2008), urges the policy makers and implementers in the
democratic Nigeria to pay attention to the battered/dehumanized/deprived and
neglected Nigerian citizenry. Democracy without improved quality of life for
the generality of the citizenry is useless, nonsensical, empty/unsustainable
and an unforgivable insult to the people’s intelligence. More than 95% of the
140 million Nigerians (FRN, 2007) are traumatized and dying of extreme poverty
and hunger, while a 5% privileged few have by fair or foul means corned and
monopolized Nigeria’s economic, political, health and socio-cultural common
wealth.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The study
seeks to address the following issues
1) The need to change from passivity to
innovations that are activity oriented.
2) The need for everybody to see that
there is leadership potential in him.
3) The need for people to see that good
principles in life contribute to national development.
1.4 TARGET AUDIENCE
1) Administrators
2) Politicians
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