INTRODUCTION
Local government constitutes the
most critical level of government at which the momentum to sustain national
development can be created. To some countries in the third world, it is the
only semblance of authority known beyond the tradition. (Bello 2007:1)
As from the 1970s, the national
leaders all over the world and even their followers started to change their
erstwhile attitude towards local government for a more positive appreciation of
the role of the level of government. Consequently, they started to think of
more functions, more finance and more qualified manpower for the level of
government. This re-awakening vis-à-vis the pivotal role of local government
gained prominence in Nigeria as from 1976 nationwide local government reforms.
The reforms recognized the level of government as a distinct tier of
government. (Bello 2007:1).
DEFINITION OF CONCEPT:
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Local government can be seen as a
political authority under state for decentralizing political power and
delegation of authority. (Fajobi, 2010:1)
It is the administration under local
committees to maintain law and order based on range of social amenities and to
encourage cooperation and participation of people at the grassroots to improve
their living conditions. Based on this, local government administration
stresses on maintenance of law and order.
ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Deriving
from the 1976 local government Reforms, the Federal Republic of Nigeria articulated
four basic objectives for establishing its Local Government. These are:
1.
To make appropriate
services and development activities responsive to local wishes and initiatives
by developing or delegating such services to local representatives bodies.
2.
To facilitate and bring
the exercise of democratic self- governance close to the local levels of our
society and to encourage initiative and leadership potentials.
3.
To mobilize human and
material resources through the involvement of member of the public in their
local government, and to provide a two – way channel of communication between
local communities (both state and federal). (Fajobi 2010:3)
Maddick’s persuasive argument in support
of a positive role for local governments most aptly justifies their existence.
To
achieve social change and general economic growth requires a spreading of
effort so that local communities and individuals can participate to bring under
ideal conditions, energy, and enthusiasm and most important of all, local
initiate to the working out of local development activities……. Local
authorities provide the opportunity for local decisions and local schemes
within the general national policies, and to act above all, as local centre of
initiative an activity conducive to development.
What should Local Government play in
initiating development?
PROMOTION OF ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT FROM BELOW
Of the diverse ways local government
could promote socio- economic development from below, two distinct aspects will
be highlighted in this work.
The first role of local government’s role
in promoting purely economic development local government’s role in this role
in this regards takes various forms. First, unlike the ‘top-down’ development
strategy, local government has a way of promoting development from below which
strategy “gives priority to rural development, enhances a more effective use of
land and labour, encourages a search for endogenously- derived technology and
inculcates collective action in solving many of the problems confronting
agriculture. Above all, effective local institutions represent a key aspect of
the developing strategy of development from below.
PROMOTION OF LOCAL
FREEDOM/ AUTONOMY
Local government is the closest level of
government to the people. If the system of local government is truly local, it
provides special opportunities for people to complain about the quality of
services it renders and about the conduct of the council officials. Moreover,
since central governments all over the world are becoming increasingly distant
in both physical psychological and even social senses, decentralization by
devolution tends to bridge these various distances between the local civil
servants and the citizens.
ENHANCEMENT OF GRASSROOT
DEMOCRACY
Local government has for very long time been
regarded as the training ground for democracy. In a sense, therefore, the
creation of local government is often linked with the desire to promote
grassroots democracy. In a lot of Euro- American literature, it is regarded as
the primary function of local government even though such claims have not gone
unchallenged.
THE EVOLUTION OF LOCAL
GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA FROM 1979 TO 1999
Local
governments system has taken different forms from one period to the other in
Nigeria. We have the pre- colonial experiences culminating in different
traditional political system; form the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa political
systems. We had the indirect rule system whereby such governments were being
run through the traditional rulers, the chiefs or the warrant chiefs. After
these, there had been series of reforms in the Nigerian local government
system.
The 1976 reform and the 1979
constitution left unanswered what should be the definite role of traditional
rulers. Secondly, the financial instability of the local Government councils
somehow reduced them to more structural decorations as they could not perform
the relation to the various functions that they were charged with. Thirdly, the
wards for the election of councilors were exceptionally large, to the extent
that some communities did not know their councilors. Apart from the fact that
this development did not make political sense, it also defeated the purpose of
the ‘localness’ of Local Government Councils.
It is thus evident that the
emergent structure suffered from various problems which tended to undermine the
performance of local governments. Thus, during the second republic (1979-1983),
some of the state governments broke up or adjusted local government boundaries
in order to carve out more favorable
bases for their political survival and without due regard to their viability.
Besides, some states, it is believed created many Local Government Councils within
a state.
The Buhari Administration (December
1983 to August 1985), reduced the number of local government from 770 to the
original 301 constitutionally approved, deflating the over bloated structure
under the second republic. However, as a result of the apparent inadequacies in
the entire system, the Federal Military Government set up a local Government
Review Committee in 1984 under the chairmanship of Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki.
The Dasuki Report noted that the
problem inherent in the 1976 nation-wide local government reforms was more of
operational lapses arising directly from the behavior or attitude of persons
who operated the system rather than structural deficiency. It therefore,
recommended that the multi-purpose single- tier structure of the then 301 local
governments was adequate as at the time and needed to be given a chance to
function unfettered. As from 1986, the responsibility for posting and
deployment of staff of local government service became vested in the ministries
of local government. Finally, in spite of the Dasuki Committee’s recommendation
of a more meaningful role for traditional rulers in the running of local
government, no concrete action in this regard was taken at the time.
As a result of the new needs of local
democracy and grassroots socio-economic development emphasized by the
administration, and particularly the fact that old vices characteristics of the
local government structure still existed, the federal government resorted to
clearly spelling out the basis of local governments, especially as by 1987 the
relationship between the states and local governments was still definably
super-ordinate. This situation was compounded by the emergence of popularly
elected local government chairmen and councilors from the local government
election areas to enhance both citizenship participation and more meaningful
service delivery at the local level. So
as from march 1988, the federal government adopted some comprehensive and
well-defined measures aimed at radically reforming the structure, finance and
administration of local governments to make them viable and effective centers
of development. (Bello 2010:41)
So as from march 1988, the federal
government adopted some comprehensive and well- defined measures aimed at
radically reforming the structure, finance and administration of local
government viable and effective centers of development. Prominent in this
regards, the federal government tinkered with the federal structure by creating
new states and local governments in 1987.
Consequently, both 1987 and 1991 exercises resulted in structural dislocation
as some communities who felt aggrieved initially refused to give their full
cooperation and support to the new councils. The demand for new local
government structure was multi-tier; the main focal point could have been
retained as headquarters while the various sections could have been constituted
into lower units with specific functions.
Again, the institutions of
democratically elected government councils have contained to be entrenched min
the Nigerian constitution. In particularly, each of the 774 local government
units how a new constitutional status similar to those of states furthermore,
whereas it was only the national assembly that had power to create new local
government but by 1999 local governments reverted to being state government
creations. Before 1999, the procedures for creating them were spelt out in the
constitution, and made as those for creating new stage governments. (Bello
2010:44).
IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL
GOVERNMENT IN PRESENT DAY NIGERIA
CHANGE
OF STRUCTURE
Local government has changed its
structure in Nigeria today because it seems to be more organized today because
of the several reforms which went on.
CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE
Local
government is also seen as been closer to the massive. This tries to foster
development in the local government areas the try to foster a close
relationship between the governments in other for speedy development.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion the evolution and the
role in which local government plays in the development of the nations today have not really done much because of its not
having that full autonomy and right, local government is meant to be closer to
the people but because of government putting it hand in it, local government
seems to be underdevelop.
PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION
I will recommend that the local
government should be given a chance to express its integrity not only that they
should allow the chairman and counselors to run it to the federal level.
The
local government chairman and the counselors serves as the mouth pies of the
people in the society and also at the federal level as earlier mentioned.
REFERENCES
O.F.
FAJOBI (2010) X-Ray of Local Government Administration in Nigeria,
Published by Crest hill ltd Basorun Ibadan.
I.B
BELLO (2007) The Local Government System in Nigeria, Published by
College Press and Publishers ltd, Leads University Ibadan, Nigeria.
Local Government and Administration
in Leading Issues in Nigerian Public Service, Oyeleye Oyediran and Alex
Gboyega, 1979.
Localism and Nation Building
Spectrum, Ibadan, Mac C. King, 1988.
Report on the performance of Local
Government in Nigeria 1980-82. Lagos:
Federal Government Printer, 1984.
The idea of local Government as
Third Level of Government in Nigeria.
Ladipo Adamolekun. Ibadan, Heireman: 1979
great article
ReplyDeleteWonderful writeup
Deletevery efficient
ReplyDeleteNice writeup
ReplyDeleteNice and efficient write up
ReplyDeletePUBLIC ADMIN PROJECT TOPICS WITH MATERIAL (CHAPTER 1-5)
ReplyDelete(1)THE PROBLEMS OF EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVE(MBO) BY COMPANIES IN NIGERIA
(2)THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT (a case study of Uboma LGA in Imo state)
(3)CAUSES OF INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE IN NIGERIA (a case study of Nigeria universities)
(4)IMPACT OF POOR REVENUE GENERATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS(a case study of Umuahia LGA)
(5)CAUSES OF WORKERS NEGATIVE ATTITUDE AT WORK(a case study of PHCN)
(6)INVESTIGATION OF GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL POLICIES ON SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 2004-2009 (a case study of Enugu North & South LGA
(7)THE EFFECT OF PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING ON EXAM MALPRACTICE PREVENTION(a case study of IMT Enugu)
(8)EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICES IN THE OIL SECTOR (A case study of AP)
(9)THE PROBLEMS OF EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF REVENUE AVAILABLE TO LOCAL GOV’T AREAS IN NIGERIA(A case study of Aninn LGA in Enugu)
(10)THE EFFECT OF INADEQUATE HUMAN RESOURCES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF GOV’T ESTABLISHMENTS (A case study of Ministry of Finance)
(11) AN ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS HINDERING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MANAGEMENT POLICIES IN THE NIGERIAN PUBLIC SECTOR (a case study of PHCN)
(12)IMPACT OF INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS ON LOCAL GOV’T
ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA. (A case study of Nkanu LGA in Enugu)
(13) THE CAUSES, EFFECTS AND REMEDIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICTS IN NIGERIAN TEACHING HOSPITALS
(14) Federal character principle & its implication on manpower utilization: An analysis of recruitment exercise at the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA)
To get the complete project (chapter 1-5), Call: 08034883821. Email: gentlekenny@gmail.com
ReplyDeletewww.projects.page4.me
would like to know the composition of the nigeria local government since the article talked about the strucure alone
ReplyDeleteDope
ReplyDeletebeautifully done
ReplyDelete