the role of youth organisation in community development in eti-osa local government area of lagos state, nigeria

Description

Abstract: Community Development anywhere in the world is facilitated by the extent to which the local people can mobilize their resources to address local needs. The role of the youths to fast-track Community Development Programmes has been recognized, particularly, in local communities where they have played pivotal role in education, health, environmental sanitation, mass mobilization, religious activities etc. This study poses that through active participation and encouragement; youths can be effective instrument for CD programmes and may take ownership as well. With field-based data from Eti-osa Local Government, Lagos State, South-west Nigeria, the study examines the extent and strategies to which the youth can be meaningfully engaged in CD programmes and presents an evaluation of the challenges facing them in that direction. Recommendations for Sustainable Development via youth participation are made at the end of the study.

Keywords: Youths, Participation, Community Development, Programmes, Mobilization.

 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION

The aim of rural development is to get rid of poverty. Youth involvement in community development programme has been as long as man’s existence. Their contribution towards community development in a given area like Eti-osa Local Government has much to be desired. It is generally accepted in most developing countries like Nigeria, that government alone cannot develop all the rural communities as at when due. Apart from leadership, there are other things that are against the attainment of a meaningful, progressive and just society that we have been longing for but failed to respond decisively. Although these are few books that cover the role of youth in community development or nation building. This study will treat all aspects of the topic as evidence to show whether or not youths played effective contributive role in the development of rural areas.

Eti-Osa is a Local Government Area of Lagos State in Nigeria. Lagos State Government administers the council area as Ikoyi-Obalande LCDA, Eti-Osa East, and Iru Victoria Island LCDA. Within Eti-Osa are several important areas of Lagos State, including Lagos’ Victoria Island. Before the Nigerian capital moved to Abuja, Eti-Osa Local Government Area served alongside Lagos Island Local Government Area as the seat of the national capital. Eti-Osa Local Government Area has a population of 283,791, which represents 3.11% of the state’s population. 158,858 of the total population are male while the remaining 124,933 are female. Eti-Osa’s people are predominantly from the Awori Yoruba. However, like most parts of Lagos State, it is currently home to a diverse mix of ethnicities from all over the country (wikipedia.com)

Eti-Osa Local Government is not an exception, this is because they need the help or support of the youths to assist the nation in achieving self sufficiency in areas like food production and the realization of structural transformation of the Agricultural sector (Doorbus, 2001).

It is a common thing that “youths are the leaders of tomorrow”, it could therefore be seen that the contributions of youths to rural development is very important, hence people look up to the youths for active leadership, self reliance, honesty, selfless service, industrial knowledge, patriotism and discipline. Generally, youths constitute about 2/3 (two-third) of the active population, by youth we mean those young active and powerful or dynamic people in the society under the ages of forty. They have some qualities, which includes responsibility to challenges (Oadire, 2010).

The community does show that government alone cannot provide all the development needed by themselves,, as a result the communities are to mobilize themselves by using the resources at their disposal to provide amenities through self-help and popular participation; we cannot over emphasize the effect of youth class or cooperative organization in carrying out such a task, no wonder BEJA says “there is hope that our country will still grow and survive into a great nation despite the ills of our times and that hope is in the youths”.

The researcher will attempt to state the energetic nature of youth class in Eti- Osa Local Government Area. The hope of the rural communities is to have access to the provision of the basic social amenities. But the way of achieving this hope cannot be guaranteed by the government alone, but through the help or contribution of the rural developers, moreover no community should see rural development as the sole responsibility of the community development officers, in order not to experience law level development, unemployment, starvation and poor health care, government can no longer or finds it difficult to satisfy all these needs due to the enormity of the task on her, hence from time immemorial, youths have been assisting the elders in the development of their areas. Their participation is very essential and this further boosts national development.

1.1  Background to the study

Community developments are measures which enable rural people to recognize their ability to identify their problems and use available resources to build a better life. Community development emphasizes self help, mutual support, the building up of neighbourhood, integration and the development of political decision makers (Smith, 2006). Youths can participate in community building of rural areas. The operational definitions of the term “youth” often vary depending on the specific socio-cultural, institutional, political and environmental factors. The concept of youth has been defined as the period in an individual life, which comes between the end of childhood and entry into adulthood (Umeh and Odom, 2011). According to United Nations (2008) and World Bank (2010) about 50% of the developing world population are youths estimated at about 1.2 billion of age between 15 and 24 years. This indicates that youths constitute a serious development opportunity particularly in developing countries. The merging of community development and youth development has been at the core of recent youth engagement literature (Nitzberg, 2005). It has been at the core that youth must be fully engaged and involved in change efforts at the community level if they are to learn to function as effective members of society (Nitzberg, 2005). For many years, Nigerian government has been preparing and implementing various plans aimed at bringing about the economic, social and cultural development of communities. However, the cost of continuing to implement these plans and improving social and economic services has been rising too fast in relation to government budget capacity. It is for this reason that community should engage in self help development projects in order to improve their welfare and bring about social and economic development in their respective communities. The development of community is a dynamic process involving all segments of the locality, including the often-overlooked youth population (Udensi et al., 2013). Despite the various government programmes (Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) 1975, Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme 1977, People’s Bank of Nigeria, 1987 etc) approached and strategies aimed at improving the condition of the rural poor through agricultural development which is a precursor for rural development are faced with a myriad of problems (Umeh and Odom, 2011). The merging of community development and youth development has been at the core of current research literatures (Udensi et al., 2013; Nitzberg, 2005; Kubisch, 2005; Lynn, 2005; Brennan et al, 2006; Okwusi, 2008). Youths groups have not been viewed as essential contributors to society in terms of community development due to stereotypical images and misconception of their age and developmental capacity. The period of intense emotional changes during adolescence helps contribute to lower expectation of youth from adult and subsequent decreased opportunities for youth to participate in community activity (Gibbs, 2002). According to Adesope (2007), the entirety of youths in both urban and rural areas needs to be mobilized for proper impact to be felt in their community. Most innovative community leaders are rediscovering that youth can be essential contributors to the well-being and vitality of the community. Projects that connect old people with youth, adults and children are now seen as the foundation upon which a healthy community can be built. But for this task to be accomplished, youth must no longer be relegated to the margins of the community life so that, their energetic, resourceful and innovative nature could be felt. According to Umeh and Odom (2011), despite various programmes of government involving the youth in rural and agricultural development aimed at across the states of Nigeria, there seems to exist a wide disparity in the agricultural and rural development activities of youths relative to adult members of rural communities in Nigeria. Also, despite the abundant human resource endowment to Eti- Osa Local Government Area, its people are still been classified as a poor state in areas of infrastructures (Nkwede and Nwovu, 2014). Therefore, it became pertinent to assess the contributions of youth to rural community development in of Eti- Osa Local Government Area

1.2 Statement of research problem

This study is concerned with the advantages of youth organization in  Eti- Osa Local Government Area for clearity of purpose. The youth are not given the opportunity or encouragement in the community, because they are lacking assistance technically and financially. There are some individual that are not aware of youth organization, neither they know their vital roles, this hinder the contributions of the development of Eti- Osa Local Government Area. And also the youth are not educated enough to be able to organize a forum of discussion. Youth organization the highly accepted by the community, this is because of the benefits that they realized, the community have the feelings that of encouragement is not given to the youth organization the level of development of any community will be low thus, youths are the back bone of a given community. Members of the community learned that youth organization encourage leisitors to different environment, developed national cohesion and discussion, a forum-for discussion on local matters is provided by them and assert in reviewing some cultural matters. Help in creating positive opportunities for the youth. Most people today believe that these organizations have over stepped their elementary stage served by a lot of circumstances the most important of which are that they have a large space for doing their work and are partially liberated from the constraints that were imposed on them by the Isreal civil administration.

According to Adesope  (2007) defines youth development as “the on going youth process in which all youths are engaged attempting to meet their basic personal and social needs to be state feel cared for, be valued and to build skills and competencies that allow them to function and contribute in their daily lives” the definition accurately describes youth development as process that all you people go through on the way to adulthood. As the definition implies, it is a process or jointly that automatically involves all of the people ground the youth family and community. A young person will not be able to build essential skills and competencies to feel safe, cared for valued, useful and spiritually grounded unless the family and community provide me with the support and opportunities they need. Thus, youths development is also a process in which family and community must actively participate. Adesope  (2007)  the meaning of youth and the way society regard youth, varies across time and Space, as well as within societies. In particular, youth had an important gender dimension, boys and girls might experience being youth in a considerably different.

1.4 Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study was to assess youth participation in planning and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.

The specific purposes of the study are;

1. To ascertain the extent of youth participation in the planning of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state..
2. To determine the extent of youth participation in the implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state..
3. To examine the factors that affect youth participation in planning and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.
4. To determine the strategies for improving participation of youth organizations’ in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Lagos state

1.6 Significance of the Study

The work will serve as a means of enlighten the how youth organization involvement bring development opportunity particularly in developing countries – such as in Nigeria at large.

The study will also serve as an eye opener to anybody that will read this thesis, it will them to understand how organization involvement will bring economic, social and cultural development of communities.

The study will also help the reader to understand why youth organization has not been involve in the past in development of communities

1.7  Research Questions

The following research questions will guide this study;

• To what extent do the youth organizations participate in the planning of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.?
• To what extent do the youth organizations participate in the implementation of community development projects Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.?
• What are the factors that affect youth participation in planning     and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.?
• What are strategies for improving the participation of youth organizations in planning and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.?

1.8 Research Hypotheses 

The following null hypotheses are formulated to guide this study. They will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.

HO₁: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent of   youth organizations participation in the planning of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.

HO₂: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent of youth participation  in the implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.

HO₃: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the factors that affect youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.

HO₄: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the strategies for improving the participation of youth organizations in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.

 1.9 Scope of the Study

The scope of this study covers assessing youth participation in planning and implementation of community development projects in Eti-Osa L.G.A, Lagos state.