The topic local government system as an instrument for rural development is to assess the preference of Nigeria local government systems in the area of rural development.
To explain why local governments have been ineffective.
To recommend a fundamental solution towards making local government rural development oriented.
To achieve the above tasks, the paper is divided into six parts. Parts one clarifies the concepts of local government and rural development. Part two deals with local government and rural development in the pre-colonial Nigeria. An assessment of local government and rural development in the colonial era is done in part three. While in part four, the role of local government in rural development in post colonial Nigeria is examined, part five explains the ineffectiveness of Nigerian local governments, and findly in part will I suggest a fundamental solution to the problem of local government in Nigeria.

Title page                                    ii
Approval page                                iii
Dedication                                    iv
Certification                                 v
Abstract                                    vi
Acknowledgement                                vii
Table of contents                                ix

CHAPTER ONE
1.0    Introduction                                1
1.1    General background to the subject matter            2
1.2    Problems associated with the subject matter            5
1.3    Problem(s) that the study will be concerned with         8
1.4    The importance of studying the area                10
1.5    Definition of important term   
References (using APA Method)                11
Reference                                    12

CHAPTER TWO
1.0    Literature review                            13
2.1    The origin of the subject area                    13
2.2    Schools of thought within the subject area            16
2.3    The school of thought relevant to the problem of study    18
2.4    Different methods of studying the problem            19
2.5    Summary                                20
2.6    References                                23

CHAPTER THREE
Presentation and Analysis                         24
3.1    Data Presentation [highlights of the study]             24
3.2    Analysis of the data                        25
3.3    Recommendation                             27
3.4    Conclusion                                28
Reference                                    30
Bibliography                                31