A Case Study of Ebonyi State Development Centres By
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i DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CREATION IN NIGERIA’S 4TH REPUBLIC: A CASE STUDY OF EBONYI STATE DEVELOPMENT CENTRES BY NGWOKE, SUNDAY OKPO REG. NO: PG/M.SC/11/59708 DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT FACULTY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA SEPTEMBER, 2012 i TITLE PAGE DECENTRALISATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CREATION IN NIGERIA’S 4TH REPUBLIC: A CASE STUDY OF EBONYI STATE DEVELOPMENT CENTRES ii APPROVAL PAGE This thesis has been approved on behalf of the Department of Public Administration and Local Government, University of Nigeria Nsukka By __________________ _______________ Ikeanyibe Okey Marcellus, PhD Prof Fab O. Onah Supervisor HOD PALG __________________ External Examiner _______________________ Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences ____________________________ Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies iii CERTIFICATION PAGE Mr. Ngwoke, Sunday Okpo, a postgraduate student in the Department of Public Administration and Local Government with the registration number PG/M.Sc/11/59708 has satisfactorily completed the requirements for the research work for the degree of Master of Science in Public Administration. This work embodied in this thesis is original and has not been submitted in part or full for any other degree of this or any other university. _________________ _________________ Dr. Ikeanyibe, M. O. Ngwoke, Sunday Okpo Supervisor Candidate iv DEDICATION To my late mother-Orie Ngwoke, my children – Chikezie, Nicholas, Victoria and Chidiebere and my cousin-Evelyn. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I remain eternally grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Ikeanyibe, whose persistent prodding and guidance enabled me to timely complete this work. Even when I considered dropping this project, he urged me to persevere. Thank you Dr! I consulted the work of many authors in an effort to accomplish this task. To all of them I say thank you. Mrs. Monica Nkama contributed immensely in terms of finance and otherwise in the realization of this work. Madam, I am greatly indebted to you. Thank you and more grease to your elbow! To my lovely wife-Mrs. Christiana O. Ngwoke and my dependable brothers-Osondu Ogbonnaya Ngwoke and Kenneth Ochuchu Ngwoke – I drop my special gratitude. Without you this work would not have seen the light of the day. I also recognize the effort of my sister in-law, Miss Ngene Uzo Blessing. Finally, I thank the typist who typed the work and every other person that contributed in one way or another to produce this work. vi ABSTRACT Many states since the second republic in Nigeria embark on creating additional local governments outside those normally contained in the constitution in exercising their constitutional power to establish the structure, functions of local governments. Ebonyi state is one of the states in the fourth republic to have embarked on the project of additional local government creation but has ended up with development centres. These are supposed to offer the benefits of decentralization such as improved service provision, political and administrative autonomy and so on. This research has probed into the newly created Ebonyi State development centres to find out how they have met the objectives of decentralisation. Using a survey design comprising of interviews of development centre officials and distribution of questionnaires to citizens of development centres, this study collected data to analyze this problem. It is discovered that the reason for development centres are more of political and meant to increase the control of the state government over the resources of the local government than any fundamental objectives of decentralization. Thus the study reveals that much of the benefits of decentralization have not been realized with the creation of the development centres. Rather through their creation, the control and dissipation of the local government council’s authority have further been increased. The study recommends among others that if development centres have to be created at all, they should be shouldered with single purpose responsibilities such as health or roads construction; alternative source of their financing should be provided rather than the use of local government allocations, there is need to reduce the number of institutions that control and supervise them to increase administrative autonomy and Management Committee should be elected rather than appointed by the Governor. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page - - - - - - - - - - i Approval Page - - - - - - - - - ii Certification Page - - - - - - - - - iii Dedication - - - - - - - - - - iv Acknowledgements - - - - - - - - v Abstract - - - - - - - - - - vi Table of Contents - - - - - - - - - vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study - - - - - - 1 1.2 Statement of Problem - - - - - - - 5 1.3 Objectives of the Study - - - - - - - 8 1.4 Significance of the Study - - - - - - - 8 1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study - - - - - 9 CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY 2.1 Literature Review - - - - - - - - 10 2.1.1 Conceptual Issues - - - - - - - - 10 2.1.1a Meaning of Local Government - - - - - 10 2.1.1b The Concept of Decentralization - - - - - 16 2.1.2 Decentralization and Local Government - - - - 19 2.1.3 Local Government System in Nigeria - - - - - 22 2.2 Hypotheses - - - - - - - - - 26 2.3 Operationalization of Key concepts - - - - - 26 2.3.1 Local Government - - - - - - - 26 2.3.2 Centralization - - - - - - - - 27 2.3.3 Decentralization - - - - - - - - 27 2.4 Methodology - - - - - - - - 27 2.4.1 Research Design - - - - - - - - 27 2.4.2 Method and Sources of Data Collection - - - - 27 2.4.3 Reliability and Validity of Instruments - - - - 28 2.4.4 Population of Study - - - - - - - 29 2.4.5 Sample of study and Sampling Procedure - - - - 29 2.4.6 Method of Data Analysis - - - - - - - 30 2.5 Theoretical framework - - - - - - - 31 2.5.1 Application of Theoretical framework - - - - 33 CHAPTER THREE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE CASE STUDY 3.1 History of Ebonyi State - - - - - - - 35 viii 3.2 Political Leadership and Development of the State - - - 36 3.3 Ebonyi State and Local Government Creation - - - 38 3.4 Management of Development Centres - - - - - 43 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESNETATION, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 4.1 Data Presentation - - - - - - - - 47 4.1.1 Preamble and Background Characteristics of Respondents - - 47 4.1.2 Constitutionality of Development Centres - - - - 50 4.1.3 Development Centres and Improved Provision of Basic Services to the Grassroots People of Ebonyi State - - - - 54 4.1.4 Challenges of the Development Centres - - - - 57 4.2 Findings - - - - - - - - - 59 4.3 Discussion of Findings - - - - - - - 61 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Summary - - - - - - - - - 71 5.2 Conclusion - - - - - - - - - 72 5.3 Recommendations - - - - - - - - 75 Bibliography - - - - - - - - 77 Appendix 1 - - - - - - - - - 83 Appendix 2 - - - - - - - - 86 Appendix 3 - - - - - - - - - 87 Appendix - - - - - - - - - 115 CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study Decentralisation has been the fundamental reasons for creating sub- national governments or organisations. Okoli (1998) explains decentralisation as a process that allows a measure of discretion to local institutions and levels in matters closest to them. The overriding aim is to give issues a local touch reflecting the spatial and demographic peculiarities of the issues concerned. Creating local governments has been a contentious issue in Nigeria in every democratic dispensation since the famous 1976 Guidelines for local government reforms in Nigeria. Prior to the guidelines, local governments were solely a sphere of state governments’ statutory power and their creation was at their beck and call. Ogunna (1996), documents that ‘with the creation of twelve states in 1967, the constituent units of the federation became much smaller in size of territory and population. As states became nearer to the local people, the local government as a consequence should be much nearer to the local people. This called for the creation of smaller units of local government areas’ (Ogunna, 1996:103). Thus, most of the states went their separate ways in the choice of local government system. This led to the wanton creation of local governments of various sizes, structures and functions by different states. Ogunna has also pointed out some features of these local governments to include, small size, emphasis on administration rather than government, elaborate system of control by the state, poor financial resources as some of the revenue sources of previous larger local government divisions were taken over by the states, reduction in functions of local government (Ogunna, 1996:128). The power of states over local governments gradually enlarged leading to the near extinction of local governments in some states and making the issuance of the 1976 Guidelines for local government reforms in the country a necessity. A key motive for the1976 reform guidelines was to save the deterioration status of local governments and the high-handedness of states in dealing with their local governments. As Brigadier Shehu M Yar’adua stated in the preface to the reform guidelines: The Federal Military Government has therefore decided to recognise local governments as the third tier of governmental activity in the nation. Local governments should do precisely what the word government implies i.e. governing at the grassroots of local level (FRN, 1976:i) The above indicates the disposition of the federal government to provide