CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Development is a sine qua non for modern civilization. In a crusade and struggle to carryout development at all nooks and crannies of the society, the local government as the tier of government that is nearest to the people is saddled with the responsibility of direct development of the people to a certain level.

Development is highly associated with fund, much revenue is needed to plan, execute and maintain infrastructures and facilities at the local government level. The needed revenue generated for such developmental projects. Like construction of accessible roads, building of public schools, health care centers, construction of bridges among others are soles generated from taxes, royalties, haulages, fines and grants from states, national and international governments.

Thus, the Local government cannot embark, execute and possibly carryout the maintenance of these projects and other responsibilities without adequate revenue generation.

This is the basic reason why development is skeletal at some Local Communities in Nigeria. The issue of poor revenue generation is not exceptional to local government in Akwa Ibom State. This has been one of the problems encountered by Ikono Local Government.

This however pronouncedly affected development negatively in local government councils. In this research project, the issue to address is how far this poor revenue generation can affect development especially in Ikono Local Government.