ABSTRACT
This study shows the “Assessment of Local Government Administration as a Strategy for Rural Transformation in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State”. The major idea for the creation of local governments in Nigeria was predicated on the need to use local government as growth centers for rural and urban development since the larger chunk of the Nigerian population reside in the rural areas. On the contrary, these noble objectives have not been achieved owing to the fact that the rural populace are still grappling with the problem of starvation, ignorance, diseases, unemployment, teenage pregnancy, oppression and lack of access to basic amenities.
This study is aimed to examine the contributions of Ovia North East Local Government Area to rural transformation and development; it also aims to identify the problems facing Ovia North East Local Government Area towards rural transformation and development and to proffer the possible solutions to the problems facing Ovia North East Local Government Area towards rural transformation and development. The data that were used in this study was collected using a self-structured questionnaire which was administered personally to respondents. It was retrieved from them within which they would have responded to the questionnaire given to them by the researcher, the data collected were statistically analyzed and arranged in frequency distribution tables and percentages.
Based on the data collected, presented and analyzed, the researcher discovered that inadequate funding has been the bane of rural development and transformation in Ovia North East Local Government Areas. This is attributable to a lot of drawbacks arising from untold interruptions and controlled by the higher tiers of government, the researcher also discovers that, rural communities under study are not actively and efficiently mobilized and do not participate in community development process. Having considered from the findings, the researcher recommends that to bring about a more realistic rural development in Nigeria, specifically Ovia North East Local Government, the local government should minimize their total dependence on the federal allocation, and increase their efforts towards generating more revenue through the diversification of their internal revenue sources.
