Local governments have and will continue to be one of the prime mores of development in different parts of the world and their importance and impact on daily activities of citizens cannot be over emphasized.
The terms local government refers to a political authority set up by a nation or state as a subordinate authority for the purposes of dispensing or decentralizing polities power. In the English sense, it means local self government.
Local government is a political sub-division of a national government, or in federal system, a sub-division of regional government in fact, local government administration is so intentioned with community development that any discussion on one out of necessity involves the other. This is because local government in essence, was created solely to bring development to the communities at the grass root.
Community development is not a new ideology. It is defined as a process by which the efforts of the people themselves are linked with those of governmental authorities to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities, to integrate them into life of the action, and to enable them to contribute fully to the national progress. Also the role of local government in the promotion of development at the local level is clearly recognized as one of the underlying basis of the 1976 local government reforms which emphasized that none of the principal objectives of local government is to mobilize human and material resources through the involvement of members of the public in the promotion of local government
Many communities had built school, constructed roads and bridges, and organized higher education, scholarship schemes for their children etc. community development as we recognize today is based on and has grown out of experience of the past. What is new is that these principles are now becoming more widely recognize than ever before. The principles of community development are not new, but it is the emphasis which makes almost a revolutionary. The concept of community development is based on the faith. In the ability of people to learn how to help themselves attain an improved standard of living building better communities taking one step at a time.
Rural development has thus remained the priority item o the programmes of the administration. In drawing up the blue print for rural development, government of Anambra state aims primary at sensitizing and mobilizing the people at the grass roots level and deliberately and actively involving them in effective community development, encouraging, integrated and multi-dimension approach to community development for the government to achieve the grass roots development, it must get closer to the people. Community development groups and local government should work very closely, because for instance, a service project such as maternity dispensary or school which is built without the full support of the relevant local government, has very lean chances of survival, since the running and main tenancy expenses of such services are usually too heavy to be borne unaided b such community.
The council is consist of six (6) major departments personnel; health; works; financial; agriculture; and education and development. The council is made up of two sets of staff.
The executive and the carrier officers. At the apex of the organization, the chairman is the chief executive and the controller of both men and materials including finances.
Below him is the vice chairman who assists and co-ordinate the activities delegated to him from time to time. Below their levels are the four line supervisors charged of agric, health, education, community development and works respectively. Both the chairman and the supervisors are the policy maker as far as the council is concerned.
On the other hand, the local government service commission is the employer of all carrier officers civil servants) under this local government system. At the apex of the carrier officers is the secretary director of personnel who is in charged of the day to day administration. Below him is a deputy secretary who co-ordinate the activities of both senior and the junior staff including other functions in his schedule. The internal auditor occupies a central position midway between the carrier officers and the executive chairman.
He is the alarm clock of the council especially when the envisages that anything goes wrong with the expenditure of government fund. He may raise an audit alarm. Below this levels are the line carrier staff known as heads of department. Each occupying specific department such as agric, 1-6 above. Each H.O.D maintains discipline within his area, check the attendant and roll call and distribute functions amongst the rank and file senior and junior staff under him.
STATUTORY / COMMTTEE:
In local government there are some operative statutory committee charged with specific functions:
the executive chairman acts as the chairman while the local government secretary acts as his secretary.
Community development is a department solely charged with co-ordination development activities in various community between the councils area of jurisdiction
However, the department cannot carryout or execute its functions departments or units within the council for example, community development as a department heeds funds which must be raised and released by the finance department from its internally generated revenue sources. In addition, for a community project to be implemented the survey and planning department must be carried out his own specific duties in town planning and market designs, so also road works and maintenance, building of markets, as well as agricultural development cannot succeed without the works department engineers and agric officers. Health is one of the major premise of community development functions.
Our understanding in this study is to investigate and appraise to what extent the local government council as represented by Nnewi North local government area of Nnewi state , has been and to mobilize human and material resources for development of its area of authority. In line with the of 1976 local government reforms.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The researcher will also in this course of this study to find answers to the following problems.
The above questions are closely interlinked and will be my guide to conduct this appraisal work and suggest some possible solutions where necessary.
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Hi: community development objectives of the present local government system have been realized in Nnewi North local government area.
Hi: There are no better alternative to the local government councils current attitude to community development.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The local state government will be able to apply the out come of the study in their functions. The people that will benefit from the study are the staff of Nnewi north local government and the people ie villages of Nnewi north local government. Thos system should be encourage in other to achieve the goals and objective of the study especially in the area of community development.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research work is aimed at studying of the efforts of local government councils towards community development in Nnewi North Local Government Area in Anambra state
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
It is therefore, pertinent to point out that because of time, space or distance, and financial constraints, the study is limited only to Nnewi North local government area. This scope is justified by the fact that it is practically impossible for the researcher to take into this study all efforts made towards community development in the country. The difficulties that were over come during the process of this research work are:
Time constraints, the problem of time was not to the advantage of the researcher and thus did not allow for more comprehensive study of this piece
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Effect: A change that is a result or consequence of an action or the causes.
Community: A group of people living together in one place especially one practicing common ownership.
Development: The process of developing or being developed or a specified state of growth or advancement.
Programme: A planned series of future events or performance.
Corporate: This is a legal structure that enables individuals to contribute and pool resources, capital, and labour in order to generate a profit.
Social: Friendly or sociable as person’s or the deposition.
Responsibility: A thing required to be done as part of a job or legal obligation.
1.10 Organization of the Study
This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows. Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (background of the study), statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study etc. Chapter two being the review of the related literature presents the theoretical framework, conceptual framework and other areas concerning the subject matter. Chapter three is a research methodology covers deals on the research design, area of the study, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, methods of data collection, instruments for data collection, reliability of the instruments, validity of the instruments, distribution and retrieval of instruments and methods of data analysis. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding. Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study