The Structure of the Local Government Bureaucracy and the Attainment of Development Goals in Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers States of Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction There is a nexus between bureaucracy and development, especially in a developing country like Nigeria. According to Gbenga and Ariyo (2006), increasing the tempo of development in any polity must consider the various players in the system. The bureaucracy, being the engine house for the actualization of policies, privately or publicly, remains a major instrumentality that can drive development. Unfortunately, they not~ development has been undermined and retarded by the menace of corrupt practices. They elucidated that it will amount to affirming the obvious by saying that corruption has permeated every facet of the Nigerian society. According to them, several reforms aimed at making the civil and local government bureaucracy more proficient and result-oriented, have been carried out since independence. They, however, lamented that not much have been achieved from.such reforms, attributing corruption as one of the factors that have affected the success of such reforms (Gbcnga &Ariyo, 2006). Erne and Emeh (2012) stated that government bureaucracy is a very important factor required for the process of rural development. That is why, in their opinion, the strength of any bureaucracy defines its output. The greater the strength of the efficiency of the bureaucracy to tackle intricate and societal development plans, the greater the development potentials of that society. However, Okafor (2009) opined that this assertion does not, in any way, suggest that government bureaucracy remains the only force that drives development, though, it remains a necessary machinery. Local government management in Nigeria, according to Agba, Stephen and Nnamani (2014), has been bedeviled by open market mentality, pitiable accounting processes, absence of reliable data needed for planning, excess politicization, insufficient funding and reduced revenue, greed, higher government interference, lack of direction and corruption. The bureaucracy at the level of the local government accounts for, and in some other cases, is implicated in some of the aforementioned pathologies. There is the need, therefore, to cast an indulgent eye on the bureaucracy, especially its structure at this local level with the singular objective of restructuring it to deliver development at this level of governance. Historically, local government in Nigeria, since independence, has gone through a chequered progression. It remains the closest governmental apparatus to the citizens that is supposed to relate more swiftly to the needs of the people. It is charged with bringing the profound benefits of governmental administration to the citizens. These benefits . ' among others, include making democratic practices more proximate and a~so delivering efficient services to the masses. However, some of these benefits, so far, have remained largely elusive at the level oflocal government in Nigeri~. Reforms by past governments, which include the 1976 Local Government Reform, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979, the Dasuki 1984 Report of the Nigerian Local Government, the Handbook of Local Government Administration, 1992 and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which were supposedly aimed at properly positioning governments at the local level for delivering the profound benefits of development, so far, have not yielded the desired results. The governments at the local level in Nigeria still grapple, seemingly, with the challenge of efficiently delivering services and also bringing development proximate to the people. Previous reforms of the local government system that were supposedly aimed at strengthening the political arm and bureaucratic arm of government at the local level, towards efficient performance have, thus far, failed to meet their objectives especially that of development. Governments at the local level in Nigeria in the past years have received several trillion naira in taxes as internal revenue and also from external sources. However, there seems to be a lacuna between the huge income received by governments at the local level in Nigeria and the fulfillment of their responsibilities as stipulated by the constitution.