Political participation and community development in Etche LGA, Rivers

The paper discusses the concept of political participation and community development in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State. Political participation in any democracy offers the individuals the opportunity to effectively contribute to the democratic process which will in turn provide the needed development in the community. Deriving from this therefore, this research work attempts to find out the level of political participation of the communities in Etche L.G.A, the level of development project in this L.G.A and find out if their participation in politics has any influence in the development of communities within Etche local government area. It was concluded that political participation has a significant impact to the level of development in the communities in Etche Local Government Area. This work adopted structural functionalism theory as propounded by Gabril Almond. Both primary and secondary research methods were used in analyzing the data. Some of the recommendation proffered by the researcher includes: Government should ensure adequate political education. If the citizens areadequately educated politically, it will enhance political participation, discourage Apathy.