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INTRODUCTION Local government areas are suppose to be the engines of national development. A quite rural community grows into a busting city, and the local leaders makes this possible. In an ideal and well developed nations of the world, when people are tired of living in the cities they retire or relocate to rural communities where life is less strenuous. However, the opposite is the case in Nigeria; living in a rural community is difficult because nothing works as it should.
People are subjected to different kind of social and economic torture that makes life in the rural even more challenging and difficult. The local government administrators are part of the problem. Like their counterpart at the federal and state levels, they short change the interest of the grass root (Rural dwellers) for their selfish interest, they are mired in pursuit of personal goals at the expense of border community interest. Infact anyone, who wants to know why the nation is not developing should visit of the Local Government Areas.
Agagn (1997:18), defined local government by the popularly elected bodies charged with administrative and executive duties in matters concerning the inhabitant of a particular district or place. Lawal (2006:60), sees it as a political and administrative unit that is empowered by the law to administer a specific locality. Local Government can as well be seen as an authority established by the law which derive its roles, responsibility and right from the National or Federal Constitution which is charged with the satisfaction of the need of people in the local, grass root or rural areas.
GRASS ROOT DEFINED:Grass root ordinarily can be defined as the ordinarily people in an organization rather than the leaders. We can also take the grass root to the rural dwellers and electorates who through electioneering process surrender partially their decision making right and authority to these elected (Local government administrators) for a specific period of time.
It then follows that the grass roots are made to follow and abide by the local government laws, they also directly or indirectly affected by policies and decisions made by the local government administrators. Grass root can be therefore said to mean communities and its inhabitant that forms a specific geographical location or area. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT:Community development is the process or effect of building communities on a local level with emphasis on building the economy, forging and strengthening social ties and development the non-profit sector.
Community development also involve the act of putting in place, facilities that are necessary for human continued and better existence like electricity, pipe borne water, good road networks, provision of quality education, quality financial services etc. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE NEED FOR GRASS ROOT DEVELOPMENT; Local governments, at least in principles deal with grass root politics and all other issues that pertain to the welfare and well being of rural dwellers maintaining law and order, basic sanitation, constructing and maintaining local and feeder roads Etc.
As observed earlier, in practice, life in a community is a bit more difficult than that in the cities, partly because some of the council administrators lack the skill and knowledge to perform their duties. A local government administrator should understand what community development is, and what it takes develop an economically disadvantaged and distressed community. Like a business manager who determines what should be produced, an administrator directs and determines the pace of community development.
To develop and implement good policies an administrator must have the skills to develop and analyse social and economic data. Although data collection and analyses is a serious problem in government agencies and arms, in Nigeria it is more pronounced at the local level. One cannot oversize the importance of data in planning community (grass root) development especially demographic data which consider the population, purchasing power, market size of a community and provides investors with information about the economic health of an area.
PROBLEMS FACING LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN GRASS ROOT DEVELOPMENT; There are numerous problems or challenges that have bedeviled effort to develop the grass root and they include but not limited to; A)FINANCE; One of the major problems local government are having today is lack of finance. This problem is caused by the over-dependence of local administrators on the statutory revenue that accres to it from the federal account.
This have made some of the local government administrators so lazy and poor in ideas on how to improve the financial standard of the local government areas, they have also neglected other viable opportunities that can be explored to better the financial fortune of their respective local government areas. State local government should also operate different Bank account so that statutory allocation can be released to the local government straight instead of passing through the state who device means and unnecessary programmes to withdraw reasonable but questionable amount of money from local government revenue.
B)UNIDUE ??? INTERFERENCE; Today, it is no longer rumour how governors and other external forces interfere with the activities of local government in the mask of “Godfathers” and “State holders” hence sometimes men of goodwill might find themselves on the seat of administration in the local government but due to the activities of these intruders they end up not contributing meaningfully to the development of the grass root.
It is therefore of immense importance that local government should enjoy and should be empowered by law to enjoy a certain level of autonomy both fiscally and politically. CONCLUSION From findings, the local government has no meaning if not to develop the grass root infact the development of the grass root is the essence of the existence of the local government area.
Therefore all effort at the local government must be geared towards ensuring that grass root or rural dwellers are provided with all social and economic facilities that will improve their economic, social, political, cultural and religious status thereby making life living. REFERENCES Agagn A. A. (1997)Local Government Reading in Political Science, Ibadan Lawal S. (2000)Local Government Administration Nigeria; A practical Approach United nations Officewww. google. com Public Administration Arizona ??? Ogwu L. C (2007)Local Government and the need for Grass root Development