COMPLETE SCHOOL PROJECT TOPICS & MATERIALS :
CHAPTERS: Chapter 1-5 | DOC FORMAT: MS WORD/PDF | PRICE: ₦5,000

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Nwankwo (1992:1) defined government as a body of persons and institutions or agencies that make and enforce law in a given state. Flowing from this adumbration is the fact that government must be coup0led with powers. Thus, arose the notion of power and its separation. Power is the ability to make someone to conform to your desire. Power can also be defined as the ability to make others conform to your desire. It is also the ability to act and secure conforming behavior.

A Federal System of government provides for an actual division of powers between two or more independent governments, each of which exercises control, within its scope of authority, over the same people. Given the territorially delineated cleavages abounding in Nigeria and historical legacy of divisions among ethnic groups,. The federal imperative was so fundamental that even military governments attached importance to the kperpetuation of federalism in Nigeria. Nigeria started as a Unitarian colonial state but disaggregated into ghree and later four regions. In 1967, the regions were abrogated and twelve states were created in their place.

The number of states increased to nineteen in 1976 and to twenty one in 1987. In addition, in 1990 there were 449 Local Government Areas that had functioned as a third tier of government since the late 1980s.

Local Government is the third tier of Nigeria Federal Government and is part of the administrative framework of Nigeria. Ordinarily, local governments are the representatives of the grass root in governance. The local governments are expected to work in tandem with the state and federal governments for the good of all the inhabitants. The social services and control which in the aggregate make up the welfare state are administered by the local governments. Therefore, an efficient and understanding, working partnership amongst the three tiers of government is indispensable for government. According to section 7pf the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, local governments have their own independent existence and their legal duties and liabilities are prescribed in great detail by the Fourth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.

The functions of a local government encapsulate the participation of such council in the government of a state vis-à-vis the provision and maintenance of primary adult and vocational education; the development of agriculture and natural resources, other than the exploitation of minerals; the provision and maintenance of health services and such other functions as may be conferred on a local government council by the House of Assembly of the State.

On the other hand, a market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions and infrastructures, social relations and infrastructures where persons trade and goods and service are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange goods/things. A market consists of all the potential customers sharing particular needs and wants who might be willing to engage in exchange to satisfy their needs or wants. Once the potential customer needs and wants are backed by their purchasing power, an actual market is formed (Czinkots, Kotabe and Mercer, 1997:201).

Competition is essential in markets and separates market from trade. Two persons may trade, but it takes at least one of its two sides. Markets vary in size, range, geographical scale, location, types and variety of human communities, as well as the types of goods and services traded. Segmentation, on the other hand, is essentially the identification of subsets of buyers within a market who share similar needs. Market segmentation is the act of identifying and profiling distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and for marketing mixes. It is the process of splitting, customers into different groups or segments within which customers with similar characteristics have similar needs. Market segmentation can be powerful concept even in the non-profit sector, although it tends to be a device for focusing, resources rather than dealing with competition. For example, there may be a number of segments within the ranks of the unemployed. Each of these segments has different opportunities for government action. Notwithstanding the heterogeneity of the characteristics of the people that make up the local government areas, each of these local government areas is seen in this work as a single mass market with a common need which could be addressed with a single marketing programme. This study therefore will attempt to scrutinize the applicability of market segmentation in the dissemination of local government programmes.