Empowering traditional rulers and grassroot mobilization for rural development in Cross River State, Nigeria

This research empirically examined the impact of empowerments of traditional rulers on rural development in Cross River State, Nigeria. In order to guide the study, two research hypotheses were formulated. A survey design was adopted for the study and questionnaire was the main research instrument used to collect data from the respondents. Five hundred and twenty government certificated traditional rulers (respondents) were randomly sampled from the study area. For the purpose of sampling, the cluster and purposive sampling methods were adopted. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe Post Hoc Test were used to test the research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance, using the appropriate degree of freedom. The results revealed that all the hypotheses were significant. That is, poor incentives given to traditional rulers as well as non-resource allocation to traditional chieftaincy institution have significant negative influence on grass root mobilization for rural development in the study area. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended among others that traditional rulers should be adequately empowered financially, socially and materially; as this would go a long way to influence their effectiveness in grass root mobilization for rural development. Besides, it would help them exercise power and achieve their own goals as well as raise their interests to bear on social responsibilities. It would also pave way for happy, enthusiastic, energetic, hardworking, self-reliant, courageous, purposeful, optimistic, trust-worthy, friendly, and patriotic behavior towards rural development. Key words: Empowering, traditional rulers, grass root, mobilization, rural, development.