AN APPRAISAL OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY IN NIGERIA
AN APPRAISAL OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY IN NIGERIA
By
Adelana, Olamide Samson olamidelana@gmail.com +234 802 286 8888
Local Government is one of man 's oldest institutions. The earliest form of Local governments exists in the form of clan and village meetings. In fact, democracy itself originated and developed along the lines of local governance initiatives in the ancient Greek city states. One of the major functions of LG is to bring about meaningful development in the rural areas. As agents of rural development, LGs are to utilize the funds obtained from Federal and State Governments and their internally generated revenue to improve the lives of the people within their areas of operation such as: Initiating and attracting developmental projects to the Local Government, provision of access roads, water and rural electricity.
Local government had become a regional or state subject under the 1951 Nigerian constitution (Mba, 1998). Thus, local government throughout the federation did not exercise appreciable degree of autonomy because of over concentration of power at the federal level. One of the consequences of this was that local governments had to operate under a structure that did not enhance development of local initiative (Egomnwan, 1984). Other consequences included highly limited financial resources as well as inadequate staffing and funding for local governments (Mba, 1998). Consequently, effort was made to solve these issues in the 1976 Local Government Reform. The most important issue in the 1976 Local Government Reform is that the Federal government constitutionally recognized local governments as the third tier government below the state government (Mba, 1998).
The struggle for local government autonomy in Nigeria has been a recurring issue. It is as old as the history of Nigeria colonial state. In the 1950s various reforms such as the Northern Nigeria local government law of 1954, the Western and Eastern Nigeria local government laws of
By
Adelana, Olamide Samson olamidelana@gmail.com +234 802 286 8888
Local Government is one of man 's oldest institutions. The earliest form of Local governments exists in the form of clan and village meetings. In fact, democracy itself originated and developed along the lines of local governance initiatives in the ancient Greek city states. One of the major functions of LG is to bring about meaningful development in the rural areas. As agents of rural development, LGs are to utilize the funds obtained from Federal and State Governments and their internally generated revenue to improve the lives of the people within their areas of operation such as: Initiating and attracting developmental projects to the Local Government, provision of access roads, water and rural electricity.
Local government had become a regional or state subject under the 1951 Nigerian constitution (Mba, 1998). Thus, local government throughout the federation did not exercise appreciable degree of autonomy because of over concentration of power at the federal level. One of the consequences of this was that local governments had to operate under a structure that did not enhance development of local initiative (Egomnwan, 1984). Other consequences included highly limited financial resources as well as inadequate staffing and funding for local governments (Mba, 1998). Consequently, effort was made to solve these issues in the 1976 Local Government Reform. The most important issue in the 1976 Local Government Reform is that the Federal government constitutionally recognized local governments as the third tier government below the state government (Mba, 1998).
The struggle for local government autonomy in Nigeria has been a recurring issue. It is as old as the history of Nigeria colonial state. In the 1950s various reforms such as the Northern Nigeria local government law of 1954, the Western and Eastern Nigeria local government laws of
References: Agagu, A.A. (1997). Local Government in Kolawole, D. (ed) Readings in Political Science Ibadan: Dekaal. Appadorai, A. (1975). The Substance of Politics. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Egonmwan, J.A., 1984. Principles and Practice of Local Government in Nigeria, Benin City: SMO Aka and Brothers Press. Mba, H. Chike (1998). Local Government Autonomy and the national Physical Planning Policies and Laws: Towards Complementarity of Governmental Objectives. Journal of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners.