EFFECT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LAFIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

Local Government Administration is the administration at the grass roots level with duly elected Chairman and full council members as per 1976 Local Government Reforms across the country. However, until recently there has been a general resistance to investment in training and development of human resources or manpower because of the belief that “employees hired under a merit system must be presumed to be qualified, that they were already trained for their jobs, and that if this was not so it was evident that initial selection of personnel was at fault”. (Stahl, 1976:19). This assumption has been jettisoned as the need for staff training and development became obvious both in private and public sections. Many organization have come to recognize that staff training and development offers a way of developing skills, enhancing productivity and quality of work and building workers loyalty to the firm”. Indeed, the importance of staff development is more obvious given the growing complexity of the work environment, the rapid change in organizations and advancement in technology, among other things. Staff development helps to ensure that the organizational members posses the knowledge and skills they need to perform their jobs effectively, take on new responsibilities, and adapt to changing conditions. However, experience shows that development in the Nigerian public service particularly at Local Government has not been given due attention. Despite these recognitions of the importance of staff training and development by management experts and government as expressed in white papers on Local Government Reforms in Nigeria, the experience of staff development in the Local Government system has not shown that investment in human capital is a means of improving effectiveness of the system. Therefore, this study intends to assess the Effect of Local Government Administration on Socio-Economic Development of Lafia Local Government Area.