COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES’ ENGAGEMENT OF CITIZENS AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL COMMUNITIES IN BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study focused on the engagement of citizens by community development committees for socioeconomic development of rural communities in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. It was motivated by the apparent non-inclusion of citizens by their community development committees and a perceived inability of the community development committees to galvanise citizens of their communities in deliberative civic engagement for socioeconomic development. The study adopted the correlational research design. The target population for the study was 3,684 officials of community development committees, representatives of youth groups and community leaders of 118 communities in the eight (8) Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State. Proportionate random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 368 using Taro Yamene’s formula. The research instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire tagged “Community Development Committees’ Engagement of Citizens and Socioeconomic Development of Rural Communities Scale” (CDCECSDRCS) with a reliability coefficient (r) of 0.80 using test-retest. Mean and standard deviation was used to analyse the research questions, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis was used to analyse hypotheses. Findings revealed that non-inclusion of citizens of communities by their respective community development committees is one of the major causes of low socioeconomic development of rural communities in Bayelsa State. Active engagement of community citizens by their respective community development committees significantly contributed to the

socioeconomic development of rural communities in Bayelsa State. The study concluded that there was a significant correlation between community development committees’ engagement of citizens and socioeconomic development. It was then recommended that there should be major sensitisation exercises in all rural communities in Bayelsa State on the need to establish a well functional and transparent community development committees, and well-furnished meeting points of deliberations for officials of the community development committees and citizens in all communities of Bayelsa State to encourage community members to be actively engaged in the development of their communities.