ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF CITIZEN PARTICIPATION ON POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN THE ALIMOSHO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT The study assessed the influence of citizen’s participation on policy implementation in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. Citizen participation is a foundational element of democratic governance and is often considered a key driver for effective policy implementation. To achieve the broad goal of this study, the main objective of this study was cascaded into five specific objectives which include: find out the extent to which citizen participation influence the decision making process within Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State; explore the extent to which citzen’s participation impacts the accountability of local governenace service in Alimoho Local Government Area of Lagos State among others. In order to have a broadbase knowledge of the subject matter of discourse, the study reviewed relevant literature in the area of the study. Furthermore, the study adopted mixed method research research approach in generating quantitative and qualitative data and simple percentage was used in analyzing the data obtained from the field. Findings revealed that respondents participate highly in policy implementation process, citizen impacts accountability of local governance in Alimosho Local Government Area of Edo State amongt others. The study concluded appropriately and recommended that local authorities should be establish ward-based citizen committees with statutory backing to serves as liason bodies between the government and the public;developing transparent and communication strategies to close the information gap that currently limits citizen involvement in decision making among others.