Development planning in Nigeria: an assessment of community participation in constituency projects (cps’) in the Niger delta region (nd) 1999 – 2019

Abstract

The development planning model in Nigeria has mostly been top-down as a result of the colonial experience. The top-down planning approach is structured in a way to exclude some communities and instead work with a few elites, who then involve professionals who claim to represent the communities but lack adequate knowledge of the communities they claim to represent. This approach has failed to spur development in the Niger Delta Region, and the people have remained in poverty and underdevelopment despite providing the revenue from oil resources that the whole country relies on for its development. While other efforts were made by the government in the past, they have remained centralised and unable to address the underdevelopment in the NDR. Hence, constituency projects (CPs) as bottom-up interventions to address grassroots challenges in the community were introduced in 2000. The introduction of CPs was seen as a remedy for the lingering underdevelopment in the region, given the people’s central position, which is a critical factor in its success where they have been practised. Given this novel objective, the research aims to assess whether community participation in CPs in the Ughelli North/South/Udu federal constituency in Delta State and the Uyo/Uruan/Nsit Atai/Ibeskipo-Asutan federal constituency of Akwa Ibom in the NDR has meaningfully included the communities that the development is intended for in addressing their development challenges. The research adopted participatory development theory, supported by decentralisation theory and the political economy perspectives, to provide a robust analytical framework for understanding and examining the lived realities of the NDR in constituency project processes as a development planning mechanism in Nigeria. This study used a qualitative case study design, meaning that in addition to document examination and observation, data were gathered through focus groups, key informant interviews, and document analysis. Ughelli North/South/Udu Federal Constituency in Delta State and Uyo/Uruan/Nsit Atai/IbeskipoAsutan Federal Constituency in Akwa Ibom were the two purposefully chosen federal constituencies. The thesis draws on sixteen in-depth interviews with community leaders, including chiefs, women and youth community leaders, clergy, and representatives of civil society organisations, all of whom are over 18 years old.