Abstract
The 1976 Local Government Reform among other landmark changes unified the local government system in Nigeria, and the 1979 constitution made local governments the third tier of government and provided for a system of local government by democratically elected councils. More recently, elected local government councils have been dissolved and replaced with Transition Committees or Caretaker Committees appointed by the Governors’ of their respective states. This paper therefore, examines the impact of the caretaker committees in Nigerian Local Government on the practice of constitutional democracy. The discussion is framed by the theoretical perspectives and Nigerian literature on local government and constitutional democracy, and by the recent phenomenal wave of dissolving elected local government councils and subsequent replacement with caretaker committees. Contrary to popular belief, that local government as the third tier of government has failed to achieve the objective for which it was created, this paper observes that party politics has been the bane of Nigerian local government since its inception, and that democratically elected local councils with political and financial autonomy are the major conditions for an effective and efficient multi-purpose local government system in Nigeria.
Highlights
In recent years, local government in Nigeria has been described as a failure, non-performing, and corrupt
The questions are: how has the caretaker-committee system that has supplanted legal local government affected Nigeria’s democratic experiment; how has party politics impacted on grassroots democracy, and how has the caretaker committee system impacted on the lives of local people? While some authors emphasize corruption and bad leadership as the cause of the failure of local government, others accuse state governments of truncating grassroots democracy and looting local government accounts but, with the exception of a few newspaper and magazine commentaries, there are few empirical studies that examine either how party politics hinders grassroots democracy in local government and hinders local development, or the impacts of the caretaker-committee system of local government on local residents
The first part of this paper provides a brief overview of the democratic local government system in Nigeria, briefly analysing the caretaker-committee system of local government in Nigeria and its impact on constitutional democracy and grassroots’ development, and impact of party politics on grassroots democracy
Summary
Local government in Nigeria has been described as a failure, non-performing, and corrupt. This paper attempts to encapsulate the many challenges of socio-political and economic development that have confronted local government It is against this backdrop that the governors of the various states decided to dissolve elected local councils and set up in their place, caretaker or transition committees to oversee the affairs of the local governments, contrary to the constitutional provision that established local governments as democratic entities. The first part of this paper provides a brief overview of the democratic local government system in Nigeria, briefly analysing the caretaker-committee system of local government in Nigeria and its impact on constitutional democracy and grassroots’ development, and impact of party politics on grassroots democracy. The case studies are based on 275 interviews with local government officials, members of caretaker committees, and residents, in seven local authority areas in four different states of Nigeria, and observations of the functioning of the caretaker committees in different states
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
