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Full Project – IMPACT OF CORRUPTION ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

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Abstract

This project work examined impact of corruption on local government performance in Nigeria. Corruption is a practical problem involving the outright theft, embezzlement of funds or other appropriation of the state property, nepotism and granting of favour to personal acquaintances. It has been argued that corruption involves behaviors which deviate from the moral and constitutional requirement.

Literatures on corruption and administration of local government were discussed. Survey design was employed with the use of a well-structured questionnaire. Respondents were selected based on simple random sampling technique. A sample three hundred (300) was drawn for the purpose of gathering data. One Hundred (100) out of the Three Hundred (300) were selected from staff of Ikeja Local Government Council and Two Hundred (200) from residence of Ikeja Local Government Area.

Three hypotheses were formulated and tested with the use of Chi-Square analysis. The analysis resulted to rejecting all null hypotheses and hence accepting the three alternate hypotheses.

Based on decisions of the tested hypotheses conclusions were reached thatCorruption in the local Government Performance is the brain behind non performance of local Government Performance development wise, also Inadequate revenue affects the council administration, and the accounting system of the local government encourage corruption. Recommendations were proffered to Ikeja Local Government, State Government and Federal Government.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background To The Study

Nigeria as a sovereign nation operates a federal system of government i.e the federal government, state government and the local government councils. The implication of this is that the three segments of governments are mutually interrelated in a unified effort to make life worth – while for the masses.

The country’s authoritarian leadership faced a legitimacy crisis, political intrigues, in an ethnically differentiated polity, where ethnic competition for resources drove much of the pervasive corruption and profligacy. While the political gladiators constantly manipulated the people and the political processes to advance their own selfish agenda, the society remained pauperized, and the people wallowed in abject poverty. This invariably led to weak legitimacy, as the citizens lacked faith in their political leaders and by extension, the political system.

Corruption may not be easy to define but, according to Odey (2002) ‘‘contextualizes corruption in Nigeria as the air which every living person breathes in and out. According to him, nobody makes any effort to breathe in the air; it comes naturally. Corruption, in Nigeria, has become so naturalized that many of us simply becomes corrupt without making any effort and often even without knowing it.’’

(Paul-Sewa 2011) Nowadays, men and women have been selected or elected to undertake leadership position at the grassroots level in Nigeria primarily sorted out names to enrich their purses as quickly as they could and ultimately run the budget of their various localities aground without any visible development project to show for it. Development projects, if any are in place after been thoroughly inflated (Lawal, 2001).

Many councils have turned to dens of robbers and cauldrons of corruption where large chunks of their monthly and special allocations are shared under different guises (Oyedele, 2008).

This project work is being undertaken with a view to discovering the corruption and administration to Local Governments with particular reference to Ikeja local government area of Lagos state.

Several reports suggest that corruption in local Government Performance across the country has reached an alarming rate. According to reports, local councils account for one veritable conduit pipe through which funds ordinarily meant to change the face of the rural populace are siphoned into private pockets.

Corruption is a practical problem involving the outright theft, embezzlement of funds or other appropriation of the state property, nepotism and granting of favor to personal acquaintances. It has been argued that corruption involves behaviors which deviate from the moral and constitutional requirement. (Paul Akpochafo 2010).

Corruption can be seen as a diversion of resources for the betterment of the community to the gain of individuals at the expense of the community. This is how it has affect the local Government Performance, as we all know local Government Performance is the management of affairs at the grass root level which presupposes that governance has been moved closer to the ordinary people of the community for them to participates and look after the local heritage of the people which will further bring development to the local populace, but due to incidence of corruption activities within the setup, it thus poses a great threat and concern to the people which were denied of much desired social economic values and meaningful development they ought to have and be enjoying. (Paul Akpochafo 2010)

(Daily Independent 2011) There is a fundamental malaise in the local government system in the country and the problem is basically with the recruitment process as well as the winner takes all attitudes of the politicians. Since in independence, several local government councils have been created and the constitution of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria 1999 as amended the list to 774 local government areas while some states have created additional local administrative units known as local councils developments areas.

Gathered from the internet “politicalcorruption.net”; There are several types of political corruptions that occur in local government, some are more common than the others and some are more prevalent to local government than to larger segments of the government.

Local government may be more susceptible to corruption because interactions between private individuals and officials happen at greater levels of intimacy with more frequency at more decentralized levels. Forms of corruptions pertaining to money like bribery, extortions, embezzlement and grafts are found in local government system, others are nepotism and patronage system.

It is a matter of concern to investigate and provide a solution on how to prevent and reduce this social ill (corruption) to the barress minimum.

1.2 Statements Of The Problem

Corruption as it affects local authorities in Nigeria. This social illness has its attendance effects on the people so much, this is because what the local people are suppose to have are being denied of them. No good roads, shoddy market stalls, dilapidated garages, no primary health care centre and so on, this and many more are what local Government Performance owed to the people but are not forth coming.

This calls for a great attention to alleviate people from suffering, to also seek to show legacy and accountability in local government discharge of duty.

1.3 Objectives Of The Study

The purpose of this study is to;

a) Explain what corruption is and to trace the history of corrupt practices in Nigeria.
b) To explain what local government is and give its functions.
c) Examine the types of corrupt practices in local Government Performance.
d) To examine the effects of corruption in local Government Performance.
e) To investigate why corruption is very common in local Government Performance.
f) To suggest solutions on how to reduce corrupt practices in local administration.

1.4 Research Questions:

In order to achieve the purpose of this research study, the study will attempt to provide answers to the following research questions.

1) When government disburses money into the coffers of local government authorities, how do they normally spend these funds?

2) Why has this arm of government perform less?

3) Has there been an adequate generation of revenue at the local government level?

4) Is there any form of administrative lapses that foster corruption practices?

5) Is the revenue generated from local government properly managed?

6) Does the accounting system of the local government encourages corruption?

7) How does inadequate revenue affects the council administration?

8) Would restructuring of the local Government Performance mitigate corruption in the council?

9) Has the utilization of the Revenue Available to Ikeja Local Government produced positive or negative effects?

1.5 Statements Of Hypotheses

To provide answer to the research questions arising from this study, the following hypotheses are postulated.

HYPOTHESIS ONE

HO: Corruption in the local Government Performance is not the brain behind non performance of local Government Performance development wise.

HI: Corruption in the local Government Performance is the brain behind non performance of local Government Performance development wise.

HYPOTHESIS TWO

HO: Inadequate revenue does not affect the council administration

HI: Inadequate revenue affect the council administration

HYPOTHESIS THREE

HO: The accounting system of the local government does not encourage corruption

HI: The accounting system of the local government encourage corruption

1.6 Scope And Limitations

The study examined impact of corruption on local government performance in Nigeria. In the course of conducting this research work it is expected that the following will constitute impediments to the effective conduct of the study

a) Time constraint within which the study must be completed.
b) Financial constraint
c) Inaccessible and inadequate data
d) Also, combining project work with several other activities is another stressful task that may not allow me to cover research materials extensively.

Nevertheless, I believe the above limitations will in no way affect the reliability and validity of the research study.

1.7 significance of the study:

It will benefit the target audience when reports of the ill of corruption practices is made known to people, it will thus serve as a guide to them when the quest of leadership selection is brought to bear. The people will be aware of what they ought to be enjoying that they were prevented from.

1.8 Definitions Of Terms

CORRUPTION: Wrongdoing on the part of an authority or powerful party throughmeans that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards. Corruption often results from patronage and is associated with bribery.

EMBEZZLEMENT: It is the act of wrongfully appropriating funds that have been entrusted into your care but are owned by someone else.

SIPHONE: To take or steal something a little at a time. Taking something that was intended for someone else.

GRAFT: To take illicit or unfair advantage of an office or a position of trust for personal gain.

GRASSROOTS: The common or ordinary people especially with leadership or elite of a political party, social organization, etc

ACCOUNTABILITY: Accountability is the concept in ethics and governance with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts asresponsibility,[1] answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving.

1.9 Organisation Of The Study

This study will be divided into five chapters.

Chapter one, which is the introduction, various objectives intended to be achieved in carrying out this research work will be looked at. In addition, the research hypothesis as well as the scope and limitation of the study will be stated among other things.

Chapter two, which is the literature review examine the existing literatures on Corruption in the Nigeria government as a whole then narrowed to corruption in Local Government Performance with emphasis on Ikeja Local Government Council.

Chapter three, which is the structural composition of the study, Corruption and Local Government Performance will be discussed and the methods for this research work will also be explained in detail.

Chapter four contains data analysis. The data to be analyzed will be obtained from a structured questionnaire that will be administered to the staff of Ikeja Local government Council its inhabitants . These data will be analyzed through the use of Chi-Square analysis.

The summary, conclusions and recommendations will be presented in chapter five.

s” and rated by transparency international as one of the two most corruption countries on planet earth (Guest 2006:6). Local government in Nigeria is generally considered notorious haven of corruption. It is a paradox and unfair categorization for a country that is also well renowned for producing the best brains in any field of endeavour. To be sure, the tag of corruption that is synonymous with the Nigeria local government is a consequence of years of military rule. As a country that has for long suffered from dictatorial military. regimes, Nigeria local government has seen a systematic erosion of values in almost all facets of life and this is because .: the military by its constitution is a no sticker to the standards and procedures of good governance, transparency and accountability. As such military rule has given a surge in corruption in local government, under it, kleptocracy easily became elevated to statehood and with it nepotism, rent seeking and such other systematic vices. Inflated contracts and over invoicing became common place as public service was characterized by inefficiency and wastage of public funds. All that one needed to become an overnight millionaire was to simply know some influential personage(s). Merit was unrecognized and one could get his/her way with a requisite network.

According to Bamidele (1980) various attempt at fighting the scourge of corruption, fraud and other related offences have proved to be an uphill task for successive regimes in Nigeria. Even the draconian decrees that prescribe stiff penalties and even death sentence (as was the case of drug trafficking decree later repeated) have done little or nothing to stem the ever expanding tide of corrupt practices and related offences in the nation’s local government (Bamidele: 1996: 10). In view of the foregoing, -this study will therefore examine the impact of corruption on the performance of local government in Nigeria. Using Oshodi /Isolo Local Government as reference point.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Due to the high level of corruption in Nigeria local government, foreigners regard average Nigerians especially those who wants to do business, with them as corrupt, because trust has been away with corruption. We have created such a bad image for ourselves with potential foreign business partners to the extent that genuine and honest people now suffer. Virtually all sectors of the society are presently experiencing moral crisis as a result of corruption. It is now a case of “everyone for himself, God for us all”. ill gotten wealth is now glorified publicly. This has made corruption a norm and a victimless crime. However, the effect of corruption has been debilitating and pernicious on the nation’s body polity social values have continued to decline as the get rich syndrome has led to numerous cases of violence lowering of traditional institutions and breakdown in laws and order. The economy has continue to sink deeper into the doldrums as it come under the full weight of corruption.

The citizenry are worst for it, as poverty runs deeper in the lives of the common people, social state of despair and decay. (Odekunle; 2001) 11. is the position of this study that in order to come to grips with multidimensional nature of the problem of administrative corruption in Nigeria local government, all inclusive approach is desirable in order to enable us analyze administrative corruption with the larger preview of an amoral state.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study is aimed at examining the impact of corruption on local government performances in Nigeria to achieve these objectives:

1. To examine the consequential effect of corruption on local government.

2. To find out how best corruption could be controlled’ in Nigeria local government.

3. To investigate the origin and the major causes of corruption in Nigeria local government.

4. To analyzed Nigeria local government performance.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

1. Can corruption affect the performance of local· government?

2. Is there any relationship between corruption and poverty?

3. Is the local government the most corrupt?

4. Is the government itself sincere and committed to the course of fighting the scourge?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

1. Ho: There is no significant -relationship between the nature of leadership and ability to fight corruption.

H1: There is a significant relationship between the nature of leadership and ability to fight corruption.

2. Ho: There is no significant relationship between corruption and poverty.

H1: There is a significant relationship. between corruption and poverty.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

No nation can flourish with corruption and no nation would allow corruption to destroy the basis fabric of its society. This explains why attempts shall be made to combat the scourge inloc.al government in Nigeria. This study will therefore necessary because it will find out the main problems associated with liability of Nigeria government to fight corruption in the society. It will also be useful to other researchers in this field of human endeavor.

1.7 SCOPE LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The business of this research shall be delimited to the impact of corruption on local government performance. A case study of Oshodi/Isolo Local Government. Due to the nature of the study, the questionnaire was distributed to some selected department in Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Council.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. CORRUPTION: A dishonest or illegal behaviour.

2. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: is a smaller government which is created to make people closer to the day to day activities of the country.

3. PERFORMANCE: 1S the level of measuring people activities.

4.GOVERNMENT: it is the institutions which makes and enforce law within the territorial boundaries of a state in order to regulate activities within the state in the interest of the citizens.

5. RESPONDENTS: A person who answers question during an interview or one who fill a questionnaire for a research work.

6. DELEGATION: Is a group of people who represent the views of an organization, and country.

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