ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the policy making and implementation in Oji River Local Government Area of Enugu State. The objectives of this work are to ascertain the quality of policies made and implemented in Oji River Local Government Area, To find out the impact of the policies made and implemented, To discover the challenges facing the policy making and implementation and identify the possible way of enhancing the policy making and implementations. This work adopted descriptive survey and the researcher selected a sample of respondents from the population and administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire took the form of three point formula scales. The researcher used stratified random sampling technique and the sample size was found out using Taro Yamane formula. Through the respondents, the researcher was able to find out that though there are quality policies made in Oji River Local Government Area  they were unable to implement them due to inadequate resources; that policy making in the local government is facing a problem of interference from other levels of government; and that the staff are not paid promptly to enable them discharge their duties well. The researcher recommends that State Government should not in any form interfere in policy making and implementation in the local government; Efforts should be made to provide adequate funds needed for policy implementation; the Local Government staff should be disciplined and committed to their duties; and the Local Government Authority should device various ways to motivate the staff, increase their salaries and pay them promptly.  Â
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The need of localizing governance in the modern setting is on the need to bring governance closer to the people. This even as its functions and relevance sometimes overlap with those of other levels of government, it is still seen as a way of making governance more efficient and effective in a democratic system of government. Local government is the government at the grassroots near enough and with the people, and therefore better able to articulate and tackle the problems of the citizenry. In the words of Chukwuemeka (2013) ‘local government is a government department and essential organ or arm of the bureaucracy at the lowest level. Technically, it is a public organization authorized to achieve and administer a limited range of public policy in a relatively smaller territory, which is a sub division of the national government.’ The existence of local government recognizes the capacity of the local people to understand and conduct their own local affairs. The people themselves are more able to secure a closer adaptation of public services to local needs than the central or state governments, looking at the locality from afar. The continuous emphasis on policy making and implementation in the local government is understandable as Chukwuemeka (2013) said that ‘local government is in a far better position than the national or state government to stimulate initiatives, inculcate that feeling of national consciousness and encourage drive and experimentation in the people. Public policy involves development of formal policy statements that are viewed as legitimate. (Denhardt and Denhardt, (2009) Public policy making process is an attempt to examine and diagnose what a problem means, how an issue can be made out of the problem and solutions found for such social problems. (Ugwu, 2006) Nigeria is faced with so many problems, and these problems could be in the area of policies, commerce, education, agriculture, communication, housing, transportation, health, and other many problems such as terrorism; unemployment, kidnapping, and government make policies to help reduce these problems. Ugwu (2006) also posited that policy implementation is concerned with the process of giving effect to policy so that the objectives of the policy can be achieved. The implementation problem facing developing countries is the problem of a widening gap between policy intentions and outcomes. According to Dialoke, Ukah, and Maduagwuna (2017) Implementation gap begins with distances between formulated policy goals and the achieving of such planned goals. It is also vital to consider policy questions in the particular context in which they arise, both in terms of the general politics of the problem and the value and powers of the policy-makers. The importance of local government administration cannot be over emphasized especially in less developed country such as Nigeria. The existence of local government remains a sine-qua-non for grass root development through effective and efficient policy making and implementation.
