FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Imagine a hummer jeep without tyres, a beautiful pen without ink inside it, a
school without a teacher. Certainly, the jeep will not be able to move, neither
is the pen going to write nor the schools function. That is what happens when a
community does not undergo development over time.
Here, we will be
discussing in details the factors influencing community development in Nigeria.
Before going into the aforementioned topic, we will first of all discuss the
following briefly:
o Development
o Community
o Community development
o Scope of community
development
Development
Development according to Osuji is viewed
as a dynamic, integrated and multicultural process of change which involves
economic, political, social, cultural and ethnical factors. Development occurs
when people collectively pool available
resources and join hands togother to achieve better life for all citizens.[1]
On
the other hand, “development”, according to Ralph Chiaka, “is an integral
process embodying both economic and social objectiveness.”[2]
Development is characterized by the
following:
I.
It is
measurable
II.
It is
goal oriented
III.
It is
achievable
IV.
It can
be evaluated as it progresses
The community
Fig 1. Showing a Community
The community is viewed in a common sense in
terms of a population of people who live within a specific legal area to which
they can lay claim. The groups of people have contact and socialize with one another;
they do communicate and share many things in common. In this categories are
towns, cities and countries.[3]
Thus, a community can be a single family, a
political party, an ethnic group, a Christian assembly, and so on. ”[4]
Community Development
A united nations defines community
development as the process by which the effort of the people themselves are
united with those of the government authorities to improve the economic, social
and cultural conditions of communities to integrate these communities into the
life of a nation and enable them to contribute fully to national progress.[5]
Community development brings a sense of
patriotism, citizenship and a spirit of civic and environmental consciousness
in the people.
” Therefore, the United Nations definition
of community development implies the participation of both the community and
the government.[6]
Hillman has however defined community
development as the method of helping local
Communities
to become aware of their resources in such a way as to satisfy some of their
needs and in so doing, acquire the attitudes, experiences, and cooperative
skills for repeating this process using their own initiatives.[7]
Scope
of Community Development
Community
development covers such areas as education, agriculture, health, economy,
personal development of members of the community, youth development, women
empowerment etc.
FACTORS INFLUENCING COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA.
Having known what development, community,
and community development is, and the scope of community development, we will
now discuss in details the factors influencing community development in
Nigeria. We will be discussing it under the following:
·
Existence of local government
authorities
·
Existence of non governmental
organization
·
Increasing enlightenment in the
community
·
Increasing awareness through
the media
·
Good leadership trend in Nigeria
community
·
Increasing yield of agriculture
·
Discovery of mineral resources
·
Increasing level of citizen
participation and team spirit
·
Youths.
Existence of local government
fig 2. showing the country
with it’s states and some town
considering how big a country or state is, the government may not know
much about some places that are not popular or may not even have any knowledge
about them, but with the existence of the local government, it brings the
government to the door step of the people. It makes some hiding or unknown towns
known and this thereby brings development to the place.
It also
helps to civilize villages, like building school for them, providing primary
health centers, repairing or even building roads etc.
The local
government also serves as mediator between the villages and the state
government as some of the needs of the villages are reported to the local
government who now takes it to the state government, and the state government
will then evaluate the request and attend to it if necessary in due time.
The
existence of local government also gives the indigenes some employment, because
most of the offices in the local government are occupied by the indigenes of
that locality.
The local
government also awards contract and most of these contracts are giving to the
indigenes of the place, and ones the indigenes get something out of it, they at
least invest some in the community, thereby bringing about development in the
place
Through the local government, the federal and
state government will have less stress on distributing things like vaccines for
the immunization of the children etc; it helps the government, federal and
state to be in touch with the people.
Non Governmental Organization
Fig
3. Showing the contribution of an NGO to a community.
Non governmental organization being referred here is a
voluntary and non profit making organization. Among there characteristics
include collectivism of ideas and execution of the ideas. The NGOs serve the
people free of charge without looking forward to any gain. They offer services
to the people like: provision of drugs, offer of scholarship, caring for the
poor, the old, motherless babies, orphans, attending to war victims, refugees
and those disturbed by natural disaster, skill acquisition for youths etc. These contribute to the development of the
place.
Religious organization
Fig 4.
Showing The Missionaries
Religious organizations contribute to the development
of the Nigerian community through their schools which is an instrument of
civilizing the people and making them enlightened, through their heir hospitals
some religious organization run something like hospital where life is saved,
and the sick ones well taking care of, this is also a contribution to the
development of the place.
Some
religious organizations are into youth ministry, they train the youths to be
better people in life, and some even run programs like skill acquisition for
the youths, with these it brings up good and future leaders of the community
who will see to the development of the place.
Learned
people and those who are well to do also contribute to the development of the
community. They tend to build private schools in the village, some filling
stations, some boreholes, some tare the roads to their villages and many of
them respond whenever the village calls them for one launching or the other ,
maybe for building a hall, a church , a school etc, and this also contribute to the development
of the place. Some on their own donate one thing or the other to the community,
like a brand new bus to the vigilante group or school or church or hospital,
some donate things like transformer to the community etc even their own houses
in the village is also a form of development.
Awareness through the media
The awareness the media creates through
magazines, news papers, and other publications, this helps to make places known,
and their plight or joy or richness or gift known. Example, the media may
capture the market of a town and publish it, people from other places might se
it and desire to do business with the community that was shown on the media,
thereby bringing development the plight of a community can also be made to the public
or the government through media, thereby making the government to come to their
aid.
Agriculture
Fig 5, Showing Cocoa Farm And Market
This also brings
development. Any ton known for producing one form of thing or another tends to
attract other towns to come and buy from them, so with agriculture, the town will
be able to feed well, sale their goods and use the money to solve their
problems and also invest some in the community. The agricultural product may
bring a market in the community where the products are being sold, which will
also bring about good roads that will lead to the market etc.
Discovering mineral resources
Discovering mineral resources can also contribute, because
mineral resources is a big source of income to the country, so the discovering
of the mineral resources will bring about strong development in the place.
Increasing Level Of Citizen
Participation
When the individuals works
with team spirit and are concerned about the development of their community,
certainly, it will bring about a great change in the community.
Good leadership trend.
Any good leader will consider the people first before making any decision
and the leader will always want to bring in things that wil make the community
better, and this brings about development.
Youths
Youths play a great role in the development of a place, when they come
together and work as a team. they can improve the standard of leaving like building
or repairing the roads, providing security, carrying out projects in the
community etc.
In the case of rural development, youths have a role to play
because most youths live in the rural areas and the aim of the formation of
youth’s community development programmes is to improve rural development. Kumar
stated that rural development is “a movement
designed to promote better living
conditions for the whole community through active participation of the people
themselves” .[8]
Youths have a great role to play in community development
effort in order to accelerate rural and
urban development. Government should also encourage the formation of Youth’s Community.
Development Programmes (YCDP). Bwala and Aminu
further stated that the objectives of community development are the
establishment of organized systems of social services in order to make people
self-reliant and to participate actively in national development. [9]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abiona
Adekeye, principles and practice of
community development,Ibadan University press.
Bwala, m.h. and
aminu, a. (1996). “community development
and rural transformation in nigeria.” Educational
Forum. A journal of educational studies; vol. 2, no. 2.
C. N. Anyanwu, Introduction
to Community Development (Ibadan: Gabesther Educational Publishers, 1999).
Hillman, A. Community Organisational Planning.
New York: Macmillan (1960).
Kumar, A. Principles and Practice of Adult
Education and Community Development. In Anyanwu, C.N.
(ed). Ibadan.
Abprint Publishing Company Limited (1981).
Ralph C. Chiaka, Development
Aid to the Third World (Ibadan: Shaneson C.I Ltd., 1989).
United Nations: Report of the Conference on National
Development, by an Adhoc Group of Experts
appointed by the
Secretary General of the U.N. New York (1963).
[1] Abiona Adekeye, principles
and practice of community development[9],Ibadan University press
[2] Ralph C. Chiaka, Development Aid to the Third World (Ibadan:
Shaneson C.I Ltd., 1989), p.1-2.
[3] Abiona Adekeye, principles
and practice of community development[2],Ibadan University press
[4] C.
N. Anyanwu, Introduction to Community
Development (Ibadan: Gabesther Educational Publishers, 1999), p.1.
[5] Abiona Adekeye, principles
and practice of community development[10],Ibadan University press
[6] United
Nations: Report of the Conference on
National Development, by an Adhoc Group of Experts
appointed by the
Secretary General of the U.N. New York (1963).
[7]
Hillman, A. Community Organisational
Planning. New York: Macmillan (1960).
[8] Kumar, A.
Principles and Practice of Adult Education and Community Development. In Anyanwu,
C.N.
(ed). Ibadan.
Abprint Publishing Company Limited (1981).
[9] Bwala, m.h. and
aminu, a. (1996). “community development and rural transformation in nigeria.” Educational
Forum. A journal
of educational studies; vol. 2, no. 2.
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