Abstract:
This study investigated people’s participation in village assembly. Despite the presence of official directive which requires at least 20% of people to attend the statutory village assembly meeting, the studies reviewed by researcher indicated that most of people are not attending the statutory village assembly meetings. It is this reason which triggered the researcher’s interest to undertake this study. Three research questions guided data collection, that is: What is the actual trend of statutory village assembly meetings attendances? What are the reasons for poor attendance at the statutory village assembly meetings? Are the village leaders taking measures to make people attend the statutory village assembly meetings?
Case study design was used to address the above three questions whereby the research approach employed was mainly qualitative in nature. The study used the sample of 18 people selected from two villages. The documentary review and interview guide were used as data collection instruments. The data collected from the field were analysed by using content analysis approach (narrative approach). The findings obtained from the study indicated that the state of poor attendance at the statutory village assembly meetings is mainly caused by village leaders themselves especially in failing to implement some core issues which are part and parcel of their duties. The study further testified that there is lack of awareness among the villagers on the importance of attending the statutory village assembly meetings. As it was realised from this study that together with the presence of complaints against irresponsibility of village leaders, even those few villagers who normally attend the statutory village assembly meetings have failed to take serious measures like giving the elected leaders particularly the Village Chairperson (VCP) the vote of no confidence or in other way to conduct the peaceful demonstration which indicates their concern on the irresponsibility of their leaders. At this point, the researcher suggests that the provision of civic education to villagers is very important for the effective participation of people in the statutory village assembly meetings. In similar vein, recommendations to specific authorities and policy maker were asserted in regard to these findings, and suggestions for further research were also asserted
