The Thoeries of Local Government in Nigeria. - 3698 Words

Abstract Rural development of the grassroots has been the concern of every responsible and responsive political system. This is because development and participation have continued to elude people of the grassroots. Development remains insignificant if it does not positively affect the lives of those in the periphery of decision making arrangement. The Nigerian state therefore created local government as the third tier of government whose objective is to ensure effective, measurable and efficient service delivery to the people. Local government is faced with various difficulties. The major concern of this paper is to dwell on these difficulties and illuminates the factors that are responsible for them. In achieving this, the paper relies†¦show more content†¦A local government is expected to play the role of promoting the democratic ideals of a society and co-ordinating development programme at the local level. It is also expected to serve as the basis of socio-economic development i n the locality. Observations have shown that local government in Nigeria has not performed to expectation. Keen observers have since adduced various propositions for explaining the reasons why the system has recorded abysmal level of inefficiency and ineffectiveness vis-à  -vis justification for its establishment. But before reading into the problems of local government, we shall first attempt to illuminate the historical background of local government in order to have adequate grasp of its future and achieve deeper understanding of salient issues raised in this paper. Brief Historical Background of Local government System in Nigeria Regardless of nomenclature, local government is a creation of British colonial rule in Nigeria. It has overtime experienced change in name, structure and composition. Between 1930s and 1940s, for instance, local government was known as chief-in-council and