Community Participation: Panacea for Rural Development Programmes in Rivers State, Nigeria

Community participation has been identified as effective driver of rural development in emerging economies while community development committees (CDCs) are key players in implementing rural development programmes in communities. The study aims at assessing the level of participation of communities and community development committees in the provision of public infrastructure in selected communities of Abua/Odual Local Government Area in Rivers. The objectives are to: identify existing mechanism for public participation in rural development process; ascertain the nature and extent of participation in rural development, ascertain the participation level of Community Development Committee (CDC) in implementation of development projects. A cross-sectional study that engaged multistage sampling technique was adopted. Primary and secondary data were collected, analysed and represented with charts, percentages and tables. One hundred (100) respondents were purposively drawn from Otari, Odaga and Omalem communities and stratified sampling was applied to administer questionnaire, only heads of households and members of community development committees formed the respondents. The study found out among other things; that the community development committees (CDCs) in the respective communities were effective in the dissemination of information with respect to projects embarked upon by the government to encourage community participation; there is a dearth of information and lack of synergy between the government agencies charged with the responsibility of planning and implementing rural development policies and the beneficiaries of such development; no Local Planning Authorities at the local government areas. The study recommended that members of the CDCs should form part members of planning and implementation committees in their respective communities, immediate establishment of local planning authorities.