The decentralization of economic and political powers has been an important tool for developing the rural and remote areas across the world. But how does decentralization work in some contexts and what are the challenges and opportunities? This paper discusses these issues in relation to Nigeria’s rural development experiences and practices. Various Nigeria’s rural development programmes have been reviewed to assess how their implementations have benefitted from decentralization practices. The results demonstrate that decentralization has not been strictly applied as a framework for the development of the rural areas. Colonial and post-colonial rural development plans have always been centrally directed. Even when constitutional reforms were effected to grant political, administrative, fiscal and financial autonomy to the rural areas through the local council authorities, actual implementation hardly reflect the ideals of decentralization. The paper argues that while the prospect of decentralization implies enormous opportunities for the development of the rural areas, such opportunity may hardly be realized due to a lack of local capacity to participate in local governance activities. Given this limitation, decentralization, in whatever form, will continue to be a tool to consolidate the State and elite powers.
| Published in | Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14 |
| Page(s) | 185-192 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Local Government Autonomy, Local Capacity, Participation, Decentralization, Nigeria, Rural Development
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APA Style
Nseabasi S. Akpan. (2015). Decentralizing Rural Development Practice in Nigeria: The Challenges and Opportunities. Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(5), 185-192. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14
ACS Style
Nseabasi S. Akpan. Decentralizing Rural Development Practice in Nigeria: The Challenges and Opportunities. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015, 3(5), 185-192. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14
AMA Style
Nseabasi S. Akpan. Decentralizing Rural Development Practice in Nigeria: The Challenges and Opportunities. Humanit Soc Sci. 2015;3(5):185-192. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14
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Download@article{10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14,
author = {Nseabasi S. Akpan},
title = {Decentralizing Rural Development Practice in Nigeria: The Challenges and Opportunities},
journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
volume = {3},
number = {5},
pages = {185-192},
doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20150305.14},
abstract = {The decentralization of economic and political powers has been an important tool for developing the rural and remote areas across the world. But how does decentralization work in some contexts and what are the challenges and opportunities? This paper discusses these issues in relation to Nigeria’s rural development experiences and practices. Various Nigeria’s rural development programmes have been reviewed to assess how their implementations have benefitted from decentralization practices. The results demonstrate that decentralization has not been strictly applied as a framework for the development of the rural areas. Colonial and post-colonial rural development plans have always been centrally directed. Even when constitutional reforms were effected to grant political, administrative, fiscal and financial autonomy to the rural areas through the local council authorities, actual implementation hardly reflect the ideals of decentralization. The paper argues that while the prospect of decentralization implies enormous opportunities for the development of the rural areas, such opportunity may hardly be realized due to a lack of local capacity to participate in local governance activities. Given this limitation, decentralization, in whatever form, will continue to be a tool to consolidate the State and elite powers.},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Decentralizing Rural Development Practice in Nigeria: The Challenges and Opportunities AU - Nseabasi S. Akpan Y1 - 2015/09/12 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14 DO - 10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14 T2 - Humanities and Social Sciences JF - Humanities and Social Sciences JO - Humanities and Social Sciences SP - 185 EP - 192 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-8184 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20150305.14 AB - The decentralization of economic and political powers has been an important tool for developing the rural and remote areas across the world. But how does decentralization work in some contexts and what are the challenges and opportunities? This paper discusses these issues in relation to Nigeria’s rural development experiences and practices. Various Nigeria’s rural development programmes have been reviewed to assess how their implementations have benefitted from decentralization practices. The results demonstrate that decentralization has not been strictly applied as a framework for the development of the rural areas. Colonial and post-colonial rural development plans have always been centrally directed. Even when constitutional reforms were effected to grant political, administrative, fiscal and financial autonomy to the rural areas through the local council authorities, actual implementation hardly reflect the ideals of decentralization. The paper argues that while the prospect of decentralization implies enormous opportunities for the development of the rural areas, such opportunity may hardly be realized due to a lack of local capacity to participate in local governance activities. Given this limitation, decentralization, in whatever form, will continue to be a tool to consolidate the State and elite powers. VL - 3 IS - 5 ER -
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