De-Constructing Decentralization and Devolution of Powers: Rethinking the Functionality of Local Government System in Nigeria.

Abstract

The paper seeks to examine the functioning of local government as a tier of government in Nigeria in the present struggle by state governments to apparently stultify the existence of democratic governance at the local level and assume total control of local councils in Nigeria. This paper situates poor performance of the fourth republic local government system in Nigeria in the present trend of dismantling democratic structures at the local level and usurping the constitutional responsibilities of the local government by the state. It is the view of the paper that for the local governments in Nigeria to perform optimally, the excesses of the state governments would be checked. This in the opinion of this paper demands clearing constitutional clouds and incongruences that fraught the 1999 constitution and ensuring commensurate autonomy that would guarantee autonomous but co-ordinated local government system in Nigeria. The paper adopts democratic-participatory theory and uses qualitative method of analysis as its methodological approach. It recommends that the legislature should expedite action in the light of the present constitutional amendment to end undemocratic practices at the local level before local governments in Nigeria fully become subsidiary agencies of the state governors.