The Structure of the Local Government Bureaucracy and the Attainment of Development Goals in Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers States of Nigeria
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Date
2019-02
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Joyce Graphic
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.
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Keywords
LOCAL GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACY, DEVELOPMENTAL GOALS, BAYELSA, EDO AND RIVERS STATES, NIGERIA
Citation
BRAIMAH, FREDERICK I. (2019). The Structure of the Local Government Bureaucracy and the Attainment of Development Goals in Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers States of Nigeria. Joyce Graphic