The best method of achieving National Development is by improving on the standard of living, and the levels of productivity of
the citizenry. Furthermore, the best medium to access the grassroots is the third tier government or local government. However, while the impact of rapid growth of towns and agglomerations often known as urbanization has continued to pose numerous challenges to authorities especially at the local level, ironically, the existing administrative arrangement at the grassroots is apparently not suitable to provide the sound management necessary for the achievement of the needed progress especially where the growth is occurring rapidly. This problem could be trace to the faulty structural syndrome that provides a definition of local government, which fails to consider the level of urbanization, thus,
negating the urban-rural element.
The implication of this is the likely inability of authorities to match improvements in the urban areas with similar rural development initiatives in order to check the rural-urban drift, despite the general understanding that urbanization matters cannot
be completely divorced from rural considerations.
Using Kaduna North and Kachia Local Governments to denote “urban” and “rural” local governments respectively, this study
attempts to provide an insight on the phenomenon. Attempts were made in establishing the role of urbanization in determining the
priorities of local government in respect of service delivery from 1992 to 1996. In addition, the role of adequate finance in service
delivery was also highlighted and established.
These were achieved by using population sample drawn form both local governments which comprises of staff of the two local
governments as well as CBO’s. Furthermore, records of expenditure of both local governments were also used in order to analyze the pattern of fiscal allocation in response to the challenges created by the varying levels of urbanization in the two local governments.
Data obtained were analyzed and summarized. In conclusion, observations and recommendations were proffered.
