THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND CHALLENGES OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Concept of Local Government
The concept of local government involves a philosophical commitment to democratic participation in the governing process at the grassroots level. This implies legal and administrative decentralization of authority, power and personnel by a higher level of government to a community with a will of its own, performing specific functions as within the wider national framework. A local government is a government at the grassroots level of administration meant for meeting peculiar grassroots need of the people (Agagu, 1997). It is defined as “government by the popularly elected bodies charged with administrative and executive duties in matters concerning the inhabitants of a particular district or place (Appadorai, 1975).
Local government can also be defined as thattier of government closest to the people, “which is vested with certain powers to exercise control over the affairs of people in its domain” (Lawal, 2000:60). Akpan (1982) defined local government as “the breaking down of a country into smaller units or localities for the purpose of administration in which the inhabitants of the different units or localities concerned play a direct and full role through their elected representatives who exercise power and undertake functions under the general authority of the national or state government”.
Barber (1969) defined Local government as authority to determine and execute matters within a restricted area. It becomes clear from the above that the purpose of establishing a local government is to ensure appropriate services and development activities responsible to local wishes and initiatives. Local government operates at the lowest level of society.
Bandhu (1967) defined local government as:representative of local inhabitants, more or lessautonomous in characterinstituted under state legislation,in a village, a district, a cityor in urban areas to administer services as distinguished from state and central services.
The jurisdiction of a local government is limited to a specific area, a village or a city, and its functions relate to the provision of civic amenities to the population living within that area. Clarke (1948) maintains that a
“local government appears to be that part of the government of a nation or state which deals mainly with such matters as concern the inhabitants of particular district or place”.
According to Rao (1965), Local government is “that part of the government which deals mainly with local affairs, administered by authorities subordinate to the state government, but elected independently of the state authority by the qualified residents. Robson (1949), in a lengthy definition, says that “Local government may be said to involve the conception of territorial, non-sovereign community possessing the legal right and the necessary organization to regulate its own affairs. This in turn pre-supposes the existence of a local authority with power to act independently of external control as well as the participation of the local community in the administration of its own affairs. Gokhale (1972) definition of local government is very simple. He says that
“Local self government is the government of a specified locality by the local people through the representatives elected by them. Venkatarangaiya and Pattabhiram (1969) defined local government as the administration of a locality, a village, a town, a city or any other area smaller than the state by a body representing local inhabitants, possessing a fairly large amount of authority, raising at least a part of its revenue through local taxation and spending its income on services which are regarded as local and, therefore, as distinct from state and central services.
A local government is expected to play the role of promoting the democratic ideals of a society and coordinating development programme at the local level. It is also expected to serve as the basis of socio-economic development in the locality.
An analysis of the above definitions reveals certain essential characteristics of local governments.
These are:
Local Area: A local government has to operate in a geographical area
Statutory Status: The local government enjoys statutory status i.e it is created by a specific law or statute.
Autonomous Status: Autonomy of the local governments Is the natural consequence of their statutory status. Since the local governments are created by an act of the legislature, that Act lays down their powers, functions and relationship with central or state government.
Local Participation: Participation of the local people in decision-making and administration of the local authority is important that is what gives it the character of self – government.
Local Accountability: Since local government provides services of local nature called civil amenities like sanitation, education, transport etc. to the people of the area, it is appropriate that it is accountable to the local people.
Local Finances: Local governments have two main sources of finances: (1) grants–in–aid given by the central or state government and (2) taxes and levies imposed by the local governments themselves.
Social Services for the Local People: The main objective of the local government is to provide certain civic amenities to the people of its area at their door – step. The provision of these services ensures healthy living of local community.
Development:
In order to have a clearer picture of rural development, we need to understand the concept of development. Hornby (2000) defines development as the gradual growth of something so that it becomes more advanced, stronger, etc, the process of producing or creating something new. This definition implies that development involves a gradual or advancement through progressive changes. Umehali (2006) sees the changes to be multi-dimensional involving changes in structures, attitude and institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and eradication of absolute poverty. He asserts that development involves economic growth component, equality or social justice component, and socio-economic transformational component which are all on a self sustaining basis. Viewing the concept differently, Simon (2004) sees development as an improvement in quality of life (not just material standard of living) in both quantitative terms.
2.2 Concept of Rural Development
The concept of rural development in Nigeria lacks a unified definition as different scholars tend to view it from varying perspective. Some scholars look at rural development from the aspect of educational training like Haddad (1990), and Hinzen (2000). Obinne (1991) perceived rural development to involve creating and widening opportunities for individuals to realize full potential through education and share in decision and action which affect their lives. Others like Olayide, Ogunfowora, Essang and Idachaba (1981) view rural development as means for the provision of basic amenities, infrastructure, improved agriculture productivity and extension services and employment generation for rural dwellers.
Olatunbosun (1976), Williams (1978), Lele (1979), Idachaba (1980) and Ogunfiditimi (2000) viewed rural development from various perspectives. However, there is a consensus among them about the need for improvement in rural living conditions and standard of living of the rural populace. Olatunbosun (1976) stated that rural development is based on the need to balance the pattern and direction of government for the benefit of both the urban and rural sectors and provide technical requirements for speeding up economic growth in the development.
Olatunbosun (1976), Williams (1978), Lele (1979), Idachaba (1980) and Ogunfiditimi (2000) viewed rural development from various perspectives. However, there is a consensus among them about the need for improvement in rural living condition and standard of living of the rural populace. Olatunbosun (1976) stated that rural development is based on the need to balance the pattern and direction of government for the benefit of both the urban and rural sectors and provide technical requirements for speeding up economic growth in the development.
Adelemo (1987) sees the concept of rural development to include resettling displaced communities or adopting new types of housing unit. He continues that rural development should include alongside land-use development, economic factors such as land carrying capacity for each area of farmland, irrigation improved farming method and finance.
The objective of the National Policy on Rural development as outlined by Ogbazi (1992) encapsulates an ideal situation of an acceptable level of development in the rural area.
These objectives can be paraphrased to include:
- Promotion of the social, cultural, educational and economic well being of the rural population, promotion of sustained and orderly development of the vast resources in the rural area for the benefit of the rural people.
- Increase in and diversification of job opportunities and improvement of income in the rural areas Mobilization of the rural population for self-help and self-sustaining programme of development.
- Up-lifting of the technological based industries in the rural area.
2.3 Local Government and Rural Development
Communal effort has not been a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the time of primitive communalism when people searched for their living communally. In the early state of man, he always sought ways of conquering nature. Bryne (1983:55) argues that the concept of community development is not new, that rather it is an old ideology. The reality in Bentham’s assertion that community development is a man in the society can be sustained by the fact that communities throughout history constructed and maintained their roads, bridges, square, sunk their well for good drinking water supply, and constructed their markets, village churches and village halls by community efforts.
Lawal, (2008:56) community development is not new in Nigeria, that what is actually new nowadays in community development are techniques and methods through which new pattern of leadership emerges from the rank and file.
Dare, (1989:38) in his own contribution argues that though local government is a veritable vehicle for community development, most local government have not made appreciate impact in this direction. He attributes the problem to the myriad of functions allocated to local government without commensurate financial backing.
Ogunna (1980:44) attributed the low performance of local government to the following factors; inadequate revenue, low executive capacity, poor and inadequate working materials, incompetence and ineptitude of existing staff and excessive control by the state government which result in delays and red-tapism. The solution, he suggested, lies in the review of the local government system particularly in areas of financial relationship with the state government and personnel. This control of local government was made clear in the implementation, guideline on the application of the civil service. Reform in the local government service.
Okunade, (1988:).expressing his own idea, state that the spread of counties has provided the awareness among rural dwellers, and has provided the existence for a concept of the process of community development and of project which have been set in motion since the United National Organization development its concepts since thirty years ago. Community development draw greater inspiration from the desire for a change and in the ability of man to learn and charge through the voluntary method, (that is, free from coercion) and through the participation of individuals and groups in the development process for the achievement of some definite goals.
According to Sehinde, (2008:9) community development is:
A process of education by which people of all ages and interest in the community, learn to share their thoughts, their ideas, the participation, their joys and their sorrows and in a large measures to mould and shape the communal destiny for themselves. It is a process of self discovery by the while the people of a community learn to identify and solve their community problems.
A firm grasp at their beliefs and value system will throw light on what the community accepts as good and bad, as right or wrong. In turn, changes achieved by community effort can influence the beliefs and value system of a community. It is necessary to stimulate the self-help spirit of the people by mobilizing them for communal efforts, which should be sustained with the assistance of the government. Blue Print for rural development, argues that for effective implementation of strategies for community development the town and community unions, age grades, etc should be linked with government. This idea he said is to involve the community people fully through their union, age grades and other similar policies that are designed to improve their economic, social, political and cultural development. He stated that this would enable them to make positive contributions to both rural and national development. The community union and age grade in every community have usually served as point of articulation and fully aware of the needs of the people. However, if they are fully integrated into the planning stage of development project, a lot will be achieved.
Writing on rural development in Nigeria, Mabogunje, (1992:191) in his book “leading issues in Nigerian Rural Development” accused successive Nigerian government at being previous regimes, rather than developing the rural areas. He content that this is the general pattern all over the third world countries. Mabogunje, remarked that many strategies such as “authoritarian hand out” from the administration which prescribed the facilities suitable for the rural areas and two, the so-called development from below have been tried in the past, in the attempt to solve rural poverty in Nigeria. These strategies have however not proved successful; he looks at rural development problem such as lack of co-ordinated community development programmes, manpower problems of infrastructure, problem of relevant rural education. He suggest solutions to these problems, which include clear understanding of the concept community development, an integrated development programmes, provision of infrastructure, relevance at rural education to the peculiar need and aspiration of the rural areas.
Local government and rural development in Nigeria, Olowo, et al., and (1991) describes government approach to rural development as a more sham. According to him, government has succeeded in imposing development programme on the rural masses, such programme he argues, only benefited a few rich and powerful urban elite. He calls for a model of rural development, which involves the genuine participation of the rural people. Such he continues will be relatively independent of centralized urban-oriented bureaucratic machines.
Nwaka, (1999:33-36) on his part argued that government imposition of rural development programme on the communities have been Cog in the wheal of rural development. As he put it, government have often set community development; priorities without the participation of the target or relevant communities. He suggests that since government, communities are the engines of growth; government should play down its excessive control in betting out development goals and priorities for local communities.
Nnoli, (1980) sees self-help, as a strategy for rural development as a form of exploitation because, according to him, for the rural people it is viewed as the task resort to their survival due to government neglect. According to him, the community development process arises from the crying need of the rural population for social welfare services, unwillingness of the rural class to provide these amenities, the exploitation of the ruling class of the competition among communities for those social artefacts which are deemed to reflect social progress, and the exploitation by the ruling class at the tendency by Nigerians to invest more time, energy and resources and those tasks approved by their communities than those sanctioned by the national collectively via-the-state.
Okoli, (2000) in his book contends that the British colonialists in Nigeria hatched community development ideology in order to under develop the people through his negative manipulation strategy. He regrets that his strategy has continued to be employed by indigenous rulers in the post-colonial state. He further contends that this strategy predicated upon the colonial policy of economic exploitation of the local area in an instrument used to sustain the self-interest of the ruling classes while the rural communities suffer under poor, hash and stagnated conditions.
Aborisade (1988) in his book highlighted the various development programmes designed by successive governments in Nigeria, which aimed at developing the rural communities. He gives an example of River Basin and Rural Development Authorities established in 1975 to promote rural development. He laments that in practice the scheme bloated bureaucracies feeding on mega million naira contracts for irrigation and other agricultural projects while the rural areas for which they are meant seemed to have recorded deeper in debilitating poverty.
Finally, from the extensive review of literature, it is obvious that scholars like Akpan, (1982), Olisa (1992) and Olowu (1988) regretted that rural development activities and programmes of the past decades of national independence have not transformed the country’s rural areas in the modern, well supplied contended that prosperous population envisaged are the beginning of national sovereignty. They concluded that in terms at the number of programmes identification pursued, rural development in Nigeria has made little transformatary impact. They cite basic social services, public utilities and essential infrastructure as still being woefully inadequate in almost all corners of the country.
2.4 Inadequate Finance and Rural Development
One of the perennial problems which has not only defied all past attempts at permanent solution, but also has a tendency for evoking high emotions on the part of all concerned (each time it is brought forth for discussion or analysis) is the issue of equitable revenue allocation in Nigeria. It is an issue which has been politicised by successive administrations in Nigeria both Military and civilian regimes. Indeed, in virtually all country in which the constitution shares power between the central and regional or state governments and, for each level to be “within a sphere co-ordinate and independent” (Wheare 1963:93) enough resources need be allocated to each tier to justify their existence.
Perhaps, more important at this juncture is a consideration of the adequacy of the total revenue profile of LGs, from all sources, for their operations. In the works of Ikelegbe, (2005) and Aghayere, (2008) they are of the view that local governments obtain adequate revenue for their operations. However, as Ikelegbe (2005:54), for example, puts it, there is ‘tremendous strengthening of local government funding, structuring, autonomy and democratization. Adequate finance is an indispensible tool for local government administration and the execution of project for which it was not up.
According to Orewa (1968:225) the raison d’être of local authority is to collect it revenue efficiently and to use such revenue to prove many social service as possible for its tax payers while at the same time maintaining a reasonable amount reserve tide it over any period of financial stringency. Hence the ability of local authorities to generate revenue to manage it properly. Blau and Scout as a cited by Mukoro, (2001:1) in their local government have noted that they do not exist but in communities and societies and have roots in large social system.
Following from the foregoing, the basic environment of a local in Nigeria with regard to revenue generation can be identified based on the provision at chapter (vi) (c) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which deals with public revenue and the fourth schedule there provides functions of a local government council section 162 (of chapter (vi) such section 3,5,6,7 and 8) provide that “Any amount standing to the credit of the federation account and shall be distributed among the federal and state government council in such state on such terms and in manner as may be presided by the National Assembly.
According to Okoli (1998:125), despite the elaborate provision made in both decree No. 36 of 1998 and 1999 constitution for the financial autonomy of the local government doubt still remains as to the financial relationships among the three tier of government for one thing the direct funding of the local government which has been jettisoned by the ambiguities in the provision of 1999 constitution as far as finance of the local government are concerned.
The financial crisis of most local government in developing counties is worsened by the fact that they are located in the rural areas. As a result of rural poverty, they are unable to generate enough internal revenue. They, therefore, rely mainly on statutory allocation from the federal government which is usually inadequate for any meaningful development activity. As aptly stated in the local government Yearbook (1998:18).
Adedeji (2000:96) asserts that the success or failure and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of local government depends on the financial resources available to the individuals local authorities and the way the resources are utilized indeed the problem associated with inadequacy of finding continue to remain quite high among factors most frequently of local government to effectively perform their statutorily developed function.
Akpan, (1965:126) argued that the bottom line in judging the effectiveness of local government is the amount of funds at their disposal. He notes that “the success of a local authority is often measured in terms of its ability to provide services to the public. These services cost money”, which the local government do not have sufficiency.
Ogbonnia (2004:34) say’s that other sources of local government revenue depend on the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the council. He further explains that, there are several ways the council can generate funds but the major problems lies in the ability of the chairman to look inwards to create means of generating funds for the council.
The inadequacies of operational and capital funds constitute a set-back on local government implementation of regular services and investment programmes. Consequently, most local government can only pay workers salaries and take care of recruitment expenditure. In the case of Nigeria, the financial crisis in the local government has been worsened by the failure of the Federal Government to recognize the new local government created by some states. The state governors new use part of statutory allocations meant for the newly created ones, which in Enugu referred to as development centres (Ezeani, 2004).
2.5 Paucity of Skilled Manpower and Rural Development
When we are talking about manpower, we are referring to human resources. Manpower to often taken as the most important resources of an organization because other resources are harnessed to meet the need to men. This problem has been a major constraints to the effectiveness and efficiency of local government in Nigeria vis-à-vis Idemili South local government.
Adewumi (198), Nkala (1985), Onah (1995) and Nkala (1985), noted that at the inception of democratic local government system in the former Eastern region of Nigeria in 1950, early recruits into the local government service were mainly “Sons of the soil”. Orewa and Adewumi (1983) rightly stated that recruitment based on patronage, have created problems of redundancy in local governments where stern measures like termination of appointment and suspension of staff are rarely contemplated.
There is no doubt that the effectiveness of any organization to a large extent depend on the calibre of its staff. The local government does not have enough graduates employed in its services. The people who work in the local government are employed based on favouritism and not on merit. Most of the staffs or the council don’t know what is expected of them as local government staff. Most of them did not go beyond primary school, and therefore cannot perform well. They don’t even know the function of the department they found themselves let alone the work they expected to perform, and this contributes in affecting the rural development.
Staff training and development is another important aspect that has been neglected in local councils. According to Blum and Mayor (1976), effective training programmes can result in increased production, reduced labour turnover, and greater employee satisfaction.
The people who work in the community development department because of lack of skills for the nature of their job use wrong approach or measure in appealing to the communities to contribute and take part in community development.
According to Onah (1995:114), the inability to provide management training in areas of operations other than finance and general administration such as engineers, architects, accountant, doctors, nurses, agriculture extension workers etc continues to militate against effective performance in most local governments in Nigeria.
In an effort to address this quandary of manpower in terms of (skilled manpower like Engineers and Doctors and Administrators) in local government system in Nigeria, the federal military government in 1979 introduced three university-based Department of Public Administration and local government: University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ille-Ife Ezeani (2004:183-184).
This paper intends to study local government as an instrument of rural development and see if there has been any significant change in terms of the effect in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
2.6Historical Background Of Local Government System In Nigeria
The study of the development of local government as a tier of government in Nigeria will not be meaningful, if it is not preceded by an examination of the philosophical consideration underlying the local government system (Alex, 1987). The structure, composition and functions of local government are influenced by the political beliefs of those who have the authority and responsibility for determining the main features of the local government system.
This relationship between values or political beliefs and structure for the distribution of powers in society has been argued by Stanley Hoffmann (1959:113) as he wrote: any preference for a certainscheme of areadivision of powers presupposes a decision onthe ends for which power is to be exercised – a decision on the values power should serve and on the waysin which thesevalues will beserved.
Regardless of nomenclature, local government is a creation of British colonial rule in Nigeria. It has overtime experienced change in name, structure and composition; Between 1930s and 1940s, for instance, local government was known as chief-in-council and chief-and-council, where traditional rulers were given pride of place in the scheme of things. In the 1950s, election was introduced according to the British model in the western and eastern parts of the country with some measure of autonomy in personnel, financial and general administration (Nwabueze, 1982). It was on this premise that the rising tide of progress, growth and development experienced in the local governments in these areas was based.
During this period, heterogeneity was the hallmark of local government as there was no uniformity in the system and the level of development was also remarkably different. The introduction of 1976 reforms by military administration of General Obasanjo brought about uniformity in the administrative structure of the system. The reforms introduced a multi-purpose single tier local government system (Ajayi, 2000).
The reforms also introduced population criterion under which a local government could be created. Consequently, a population of within 150,000 to 800,000 was considered feasible for a local government. This was done to avoid the creation of non-viable local council and for easy accessibility. There was provision for elective positions having the chairman as executive head of local government with supervisory councilors constituting the cabinet. This was complemented by the bureaucrats and professionals, such as Doctors, Engineers etc who were charged with the responsibility of implementing policies (1976 Guidelines).
In 1991, a major landmark reform was introduced as the system had legislative arm. In addition, the Babangida administration increased the number of local government from 301 in 1976 to 453 in 1989 and 589 in 1991, the Abacha regime also increased the number to 774 local councils that we have today and the administrative structure also underwent some changes (Ajayi, 2000).
In summary, it can be said that no public institution in Nigeria has been so subjected to frequent reforms than local government.
2.7 Challenges of rural development
The issue of funding is a big challenge. Some of the rural development programmes are so bogus without a clearly defined sources of funding. The cases of the Housing for ALL, Universal Basic Education (UBE) and so on are clear examples. They are often initiated before sourcing for funds from philanthropists and international donors which may never come. Another challenge is the armed conflicts ranging form ethnic, religious and communal issues which do not provide enabling environment for the implementation of sustainable development programmes in such areas. For instance, a situation where foreigners and government workers in some coastal rural areas are target of kidnappers demanding ransom is obviously not conducive for development work.
Also, corruption poses a very big threat to rural development. There is lack of integrity, accountability and transparency on the part of people who are supposed to implement development projects in the rural areas. Nwakoby (2007) laments that public funds (made for rural projects) are strarched away in bank vaults in Europe and America, while an overwhelming proportion of the population live in abject poverty. Another challenge is the lack of political will and commitment, policy instability and insufficient involvement of the intended beneficiaries of the programmes hence according to Chiliokwu (2006), most of them died with the government that initiated them. For example, development programmes like Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution, Free and Compulsory Primary Education, Low cost Housing Schemes which impact positively on the rural dwellers could not be sustained.
Onibokun (1987) sees rural development to be faced with the paradox that the production oriented rural economy relies heavily on non-productive people who are well - equipped with outdated tools, technical information, scientific and cultural training and whose traditional roles and access to resources pose problems for their effective incorporation into modern economic systems, whereas the consumption oriented urban economy is flooded with people many of who are either unemployed or unemployable or marginally employed or underemployed in the urban centres where they choose to live. As a result of this mass exodus, the rural areas have been qualitatively depopulated and are progressively less attractive for social and economic investments while the urban areas are becoming physically congested, socially unhealthy and generally uneconomic to maintain.
In addition, rural development is faced with challenges which have made the effect of government‟s efforts at different levels, NGOs, private initiatives and international involvement not felt by the intended beneficiaries. Umebali and Akubuilo (2006) list such challenges like:Vicious cycle of poverty, poor infrastructure, high population density, high level of illiteracy, low social interaction and local politics and rural - urban migration.
Rural dwellers have been considered as the thermometer through which one determines the impact of rural development. A lot of rigours, bottlenecks and unnecessary bureaucracy are often attached to rural development process. This is evident in the history of most of the rural development programmes which are often saddled with disappointments. Another challenge is the issue of proliferation of development programmes. Some are so superficially implemented that the average targeted population (rural dwellers) doubt the sincerity of the initiators. Such proliferation can easily be noticed from the many number of such that died with successive government that initiated them.
The problem of implementation is another glaring challenge. Obot (1989) justified this claim when he writes that the development policies geared towards the improvement of the rural dwellers remained almost a house - hold word without corresponding success especially at the implementation states. To this end, some of them are haphazardly implemented as a result of poor supervision. Perhaps this is why water taps abound in so many rural communities but without water since their installation.
Local governments being small may not be able to attract competent and efficient persons to perform the services they render to the public. Since the area of their jurisdiction is small and their capacity to pay is limited by their limited resources, they may find it difficult to hire specialists. Since governments are concerned with their respective local communities, they may degenerate into myopic, narrow – minded, selfish and ignorant institutions. They cannot provide services of a uniform standard. Local governments are bound to differ in resources, efficiency, etc. They are to work and survive in the face of centralizing tendencies. Modern technological revolution has led to speedy communications, industrialization, urbanization etc. “Local initiative and the independence of action have been undermined by the ease and quickness with which the state government and the town government may talk over the telephone and settle the matter, ” (Maheshwari, 1999).
Local governments may especially be prone to corruption and malfeasance, much more than the central government.
2.8 Theoretical Framework
The theory which informs our discussion of local government and rural development, a study of Idemili South local government council is the general systems theory. The scholar most associated with this theory is Easton (1965) “sees the political system as a set of interrelated and reciprocally regulated patterns of actions and orientation, pattern that cluster together in equilibrium and that have certain needs of maintenance and survival. It is a phenomenon of whatever type, including physical, biological, social, political, etc., which is an organized whole with identifiable, interrelated structures delineating it from the environment (supra system) in which it is located and with which it interacts, processing the inputs from it into outputs for it.
The general systems theory seeks to argue that every system, including political system, has subsystems which make up the entire system. They are assigned functions and provided with enabling empowerment, including resources, appropriate authority, etc. to enable them discharge their responsibilities optimally. Where this is the case, there is said to be homeostasis (stability) in the political system. On the other hand, instability reigns in the political system where the contrary is the case and the subsystems and entire system are also unable to function optimally.
Input and output analysis of a political system is very important. A political system is said to obtain its inputs (demands, supports, liberty or autonomy, cooperation, criticisms, resources, information, direct labour, etc.) from the environment. These inputs are what the subsystems employ to discharge their responsibilities, so that the political system can send out its outputs into the environment and obtain further inputs for its operations.
Diagrammatic representation of David Easton’s System Analysis
Source: Gauba op, an introduction to political theory.
2.8.1Application of the theory
Applying this theory of the systems analysis to the local government system, the local government system in the country constitutes the sub-system. They must be well handled in terms of being fed with adequate inputs, so that they can contribute appropriately to the optimality of the whole (country) political system, as well as its homeostasis. If the reverse is the case, that is, if the local government system do not have the required inputs to operate on.
According Apter (1963:15) the political system has two elements viz input (made up of demand support) and output (made up of authoritative decisions). By input, he meant those factors which emanated from the environment and go into decision making. They are those demands that come out from the society. Outputs are results that emanates from the demand and support made at the level of input.
Idemili South local government council is a system which carries out these functions by receiving inputs from the people and converting it into output. The citizens are involved in such demands above. This demand on the system is in inform of appeal to the council authority to provide some basic infrastructure like good road network, pipe borne water, health facilities, ultra modern markets etc. Support on the other hand could be people’s participation in decision making process or voting in community development project as well as financial support, in form of tax, rates paid by the people including grant from Anambra State and Federal Government of Nigeria. Though, this means they provide raw material on which the system acts, so as to produce output. This in turn will influence the environment of the system and consequently generate continued demand which in turn creates a feed back and the whole process continues on a cyclical pattern.