The Role of Communication in the Effective Administration of Local Governments in Cross River State of Nigeria

Abstract

The Local Government is the closest level of governance to the people at the grassroots; and as a result, needs to generate enough financial resources to provide services that can help in reducing the poverty index of those it serves. Being under close scrutiny by the people, the inability of its operators to perform to expectation can totally destroy their political goodwill. This article aims at  properly locating the role communication can play in promoting effective administration of the Local Government in Cross River State of Nigeria. The agenda-setting theory is used as the theoretical framework. The work reveals that even without money to work with, the Local Government administrators had been under intense criticism by the people because there had not been adequate communication between the government and the governed. The paper, therefore, recommends that Local Government functionaries should be proactive in their communication effort so as to always keep their subjects properly informed. The mass media in order to assist in restoring the functionality of Local Governments in Nigeria so that they can serve their people better, should advocate for revolutionary changes in the administration of Local Governments in the country through their news, features, opinions and editorial comments.

Keywords: administration, communication, local government, media, poverty reduction.