EDUPEDIA247

CORRUPTION AND GRASSROOTS DEVELOPMENT (A CASE STUDY OF AKOKO SOUTH WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ONDO STATE NIGERIA) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY  Nigeria is a country endowed with abundant and human resources, with a population of over 150 million people; the most populous country in Africa. At the time of her political independence, on 1st October 1960, Nigeria excelled in production of agricultural produce such as groundnut, palm oil, cocoa, cotton, beans, timber and hides and skins Then, during the oil boom period of the seventies Nigeria made headlines with her oil wealth, as a country richly endowed with oil and natural gas resources capable of financing a number of important projects to meet basic consumption and development needs (Salisu, 2000). With per capital income of around $1,100 during the late 1970’s Nigeria was regarded as the fastest growing country in Sub-Sahara Africa (Salisu, 2000).  Yet it remains predominantly underdevelope

DEMOCRACY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA CRISES AND CONTRADICTIONS (1999-2011). CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background to the Study         Despite all social and economic policies that have been implemented by successive administrations, Nigeria has remained a laggard in social, economic and political developments. Subsequently, political instability, abject poverty, acute youth unemployment, heightened crime rate, poor health prospects, widespread malnourishment and the like, have been the recurrent features of Nigeria’s political economy. One of the major explanations for the failure of all development programmes in Nigeria has been the absence of democracy and the intermittent military intervention in politics. However, with the benefit of hindsight and as demonstrated by the current experience, even the periods of civil rule (1960 – 1966, 1979 – 1983 and 1999 to date ) failed to produce any positive or better results. This assertion is vindicated by the report

CONSTRAINTS ON EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT POLICY-MAKING IN NIGERIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS A STUDY OF ENUGU EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ENUGU STATE CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION                                                              1.1 Background of the Study The local government has most often been described by many authors and scholars as the government at the grass root because it is the closest to the people in comparison to the state and Federal government. The existence of this tier of government  in Nigeria dates back to the activities of the British colonialist and their quest to bring down government closer to the local people in other to maintain law and order as it where in those days.  As Olasupo and Fayomi (2012) pointed that “prior to independence and the prolonged civil war, Nigerian local government system was essentially de-concentrative but in 1976, it became devolved and “should do precisely what the word government implies i.e., governing at the grassroots