Do Community Development efforts influence Local Government efficiency? Practices from Nigeria

Abstract

Local governments in Nigeria were created to bring the government closer to the people at the grassroot level and is financed by the federal government through the state government. However, due to years of corruption, elitism and godfatherism, the LG has been denied by greedy state governors. This has led to the rise of community actors to carry out similar acts of the LG. This research seeks to understand the citizen’s perception towards the activities of the LG and to find out if community development efforts reduce LG efficiency towards development activities. The work adopted a mixed method of research and data collection was quantitative means through 375 administered questionnaires to citizens of Offa LG and interviews with LG representatives and community development organization. The research finds that community development efforts have broadened through several factors affecting the LG. The research recommends further research to understand this relationship.