The Role of Local Government in Maintained of Human Security in Rural Areas, A Case Study of Butaleja District

ABSTRACT Chapter one presents the background to the study, statement of the problem, general objective of the study, research questions, Significance of the study, scope of the study and limitations of the study as applied to suit the context of the study. As was pointed out in a number of presentations, human security represents an integration of security and development practices, is consistent with the language of development, and speaks to the same issue areas as have been engaged by the development community (Human Security, 2007). Other approaches called critical’ go even beyond Human Security. This policy is characterized by transfer of powers, functions and services from the central government to local councils. Local governments have councils with the highest political authority in their areas ofjurisdiction, with both executives and legislative powers. The local government system is based on the district as unit under which are lower local governments and administrative units. Local government and administrative units are collectively known as local councils which are further characterized as either rural — district, county, sub-county, parish and village or urban — city, division, municipal, municipal division, Town council, parish/ward and village (Uganda Local Government Act 1997). The term is used to contrast with offices at state levi, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or (where appropriate) federal government and also to supranational government which deals with governing institutions between states. Chapter three presents the study applied in a research design to reflect aspects of feelings, experiences which were mainly used to achieve the objectives of the study in the role of local government in maintain of security in rural areas. Qualitative design involved in-depth interviewing of the Local government officials, top community leaders and some local people in Butaleja district while on the other hand Quantitative design involved the use of close ended questionnaires which were issued to some officials of Butaleja district as the method was convenient for them to fill. Chapter five presents recommendation that the factG .~ militating against the ability of local government authorities in Nigeria which are primarily human factors should be arrested if the state and federal governments introduce more financial discipline into the local government system to curb the endemic problem of corruption. Furthermore, employment into local government service must be restricted to only those persons possessing development related skills and qualifications and expertise.