Local Government Administration and National Development in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects
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Date
2017
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Department of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Ilorin
Abstract
The local government constitutes the most critical level of government in the move for sustainable national development. Over the years, national development has been canvassed to take off from the grassroots as the local government is widely known as a vital instrument for rural transformation and machinery for effective delivery of socio-economic services to the people. In the light of this, in 1976, the nationwide local government reform was initiated where the local government were saddled with more functions, responsibilities and finances. However, this development has led to wide disparity in what should be expected of the local government and what is actually happening in the local government in terms of socio-economic service delivery for national development which is the central focus of this paper. The aim of this paper is to discuss the challenges confronting the local government in carrying out its functions as a level of government as well as highlight the prospects for local government as an engine of national development. This paper has adopted a conceptual approach through the use of secondary source of data to analyse objectives. It is discovered in this paper that the local government has lost its footing in the developmental process due to unwarranted encroachment into the administration, finance and operations of the local government by the state governments. Therefore, it is recommended in this paper that for local government to be vibrant and perform up to expectation, a constitutional amendment must be made to cede the local away as an appendage of the state government.
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Keywords
Local Government, National Development, Nigeria