Controversies and Intrigues Behind the Introduction of Development Areas by Some State Governments in Nigeria: Matters Arising

Abstract

It is known fact that various school of thought exists on whether the State government has the constitutional right to create development areas or not. Some are of the view that the creation of development areas is a way of bringing government closer to the people at the grassroots level while others considered such move as a way of siphoning public fund into private pockets Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the necessity or otherwise of introducing development areas within the existing constitutionally recognized local government councils at the State levels in Nigeria . In efforts to achieving the objective of this study, a qualitative technique of data collection and analysis of existing documents, reports, bulletin, records and official publications was adopted. At the end of the study, it was discovered that most States that created development areas are not faring better in terms of revenue generation, infrastructure development and provision of social amenities to citizens despites the supposedly benefits drivable from such decisions. In most cases, such initiative only succeeded in increasing the cost of governance through astronomical rise in the recurrent expenditures. In other words, statutory allocations meant for existing local councils are now being shared to development areas without any form of returns thereafter. Therefore, this study recommended for the scraping of development areas in order to channel available resources at the local councils to the implementation of viable projects that have direct bearing on improved standard of living for rural dwellers. DOI : 10.7176/PPAR/9-5-06 Publication date :May 31 st 2019