Local Government as a Tool for Rural Development in Nigeria

The study aimed at examining the contributions of izzi local government towards rural development in rural areas. Asserting the extent to which lzzi local government has contributed towards human capital development and the extent the local government has reduced the level of poverty in the area. Structural functional theory propounded by Gabriel Hammod and James coleman in 1960 was adopted to guide the study. A descriptive survey design was also adopted to study the population 234, 074 which was reduced to a sample size of 399 using Taro Yameni's statistical formular and stratified sampling and random sampling techniques was used. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources, structured questionnaire instrument were used for data collected and frequency distribution table with simple percentage method were also used to analyze the data collection whereas statistical chi- square (X) was applied in the empirical testing of the hypothese that guided the study. The study revealed the following findings: that the contributions of Izzi local government area towards rural development is significantly high considering their strides in the provision of social amenities, education etc. and another findings is that lzzi local government has contributed in reducing the level of poverty and as well as help towards human capital development. Finally the researcher recommends that the federal government should improve on statutory allocation to local government to assist them undertake capital project that will enhance rural development, and the statutory allocation of the local government should be paid directly into the local government account rather than state joint local account in order to reduce excessive control of the state government.