Rural development in Nigeria is a very important and popular economic activity. In spite of its importance its prosecution in the past had been left entirely in the hands of local agents with little or no direction. Although government efforts to be actively involved in this sector in the recent past are laudable, the programme has been beset with various bureaucratic constraints which have caused failures. This paper enumerates some of the major constraints which are: (a) limitation in the flow and supply of funds and materials; (b) lack of executive capacity; (c) institutional bureaucratic delay and interference and cultural beliefs; (d) attitudinal problems; (e) lack of a requisite data base for planning; (f) planning from the top which leads to ill-conceived projects and (g) inadequate supervision of project implementation and progress reporting. In order to improve on rural development administration, the paper suggests the removal of these constraints and advocates alternative solutions which will involve the active participation of, and consultation with, all sorts of community groups as agents of government in prosecuting the urgent task of rural development in Nigeria.