CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND OF TH STUDY The local government councils being the government nearest to the populace, is one of the best agencies for generating motivations and encouraging mobilisation for self-help, as well as including the much needed wider participation of the local population in the decision making process at the local level (Ukah, 2012). According to Edward Scouma, Eluwa, (2012), The so-called third world is a rural world where any meaningful discussion of community development really means not only “talking of overall national development,” but because “it is in community that the problems of inequitable distribution of resources or a marked lack of purchasing power and of grinding poverty in which the wretched members of society stagnate and stare one in the face with brutal clarity. The reason for the existence of the local government councils in Nigeria is to, at least stop the deteriorating living conditions in the various communities of the country. An effective local government councils will be better disposed than the state or federal government, not only to stem the grim reality of the rising tide of grassroots poverty but also be better positioned to evoke communal efforts and networking to manage and mobilise the support of local citizenry in participating in all the programmes that may affect them (Eluwa, 2012). As an agent of development, the major priorities of any local government councils should include reduction of poverty in the community, increasing the standard of living of the local dwellers, provision of social amenities, enhancing the participation of the local citizens in political activities that concern them, enhancing their individual human capabilities, boosting nationalism, inspiring creativity and innovation as well as educating the local people (Bello-Imam, 2007). Local government council administration in Nigeria is an o-shoot of the federal political arrangement which is basically characterized by decentralization of functions. Decentralization in this the context is regarded as a process through which powers, functions, responsibilities and resources are transferred from central to local government councils and/or to other decentralized entities (United Nations 2006, p.8). In a federal system like Nigeria, decentralization shares both political and economic justifications (Diejomaoh and Eboh, 2010)

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