Barriers to Community Participation in Infrastructure Provision and Maintenance in Residential Estate in Abuja, Nigeria.

Abstract

Community participation is crucial for the success of developmental projects, particularly in infrastructure provision and maintenance. Despite community participation issues being highly context-dependent, it has been given limited attention and not fully harnessed to the benefits of generality of Nigerians. Thus, this study investigated barriers to community participation in infrastructure provision and maintenance in the owner-occupier estates in Kubwa Bwari Area Council, FCT. Abuja. The primary data gathering instrument for this study is structured closed-ended questionnaire. Structured questionnaires were used to elicit information from 125 randomly selected respondents which were analysed using percentile and mean item scores. The findings revealed that the lack of transparency in the estate infrastructure participatory planning having mean score value of 3.71, transparency in infrastructure project execution with mean score value of 3.50 and distrust in community leadership having mean score value of 3.43 were the most significant barriers to community participation in infrastructure provision and maintenance in the study area. These barriers might have contributed to the limited participation of the residents in the areas studied due to the way and manner the community residents’ associations (CRAs) were administered. Therefore, there is the need for CRA leadership to be open and accountable to all at every phase of project planning and execution so that improvement of the facilities can be engendered.