Abstract
Globally, the debate on the adaptability of traditional institutions into local governance is ongoing. A school of thought believes that traditional institutions foster local government administration especially in mobilizing grassroots support through its traditional strategies. Another school characterized administrative practices of traditional institutions as anachronistic and undemocratic. While synergy among these views is desirable, this study investigates the extent to which tendencies of traditional institutions are reflected in the modernised local government administration. Respondents were selected from Atiba Local Government Council, the Community Leaders, and the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters in Oyo State with a total population (304) and sample size (152). Primary and secondary sources were employed for data collection. The study revealed traditional institutions partake in security administration (80.6%) and information management (84.4%) but not so active in project monitoring (93.3%), on overall the study reported that roles allotted traditional institutions were not statistically significant, c2 (6, 670)=0.414, p > 0.05. The study further established that effects of the traditional institution are more prominent in; effective two-way communication between the grassroots and local government (89.5%), promotion of peace and order (93.3%) but less prominent in collaborative governance (91.1%), it was revealed that effect of traditional institutions on local governance is not statistically significant, c2 (6, 670)=0.007, p > 0.05. For the tendencies of traditional institutions to be harmoniously reflected in the local government administration, institutional and constitutional reforms are hereby recommended.
Highlights
Evidence of plurality and diversity in the pre-colonial Africa cultures and local governance structures are well documented in the literature
85% as against 14.9% of the respondents rejected the claim that the existence of traditional institutions side by side with the local administrative system has strengthened democratic ideology among the locals. 89.5% of the respondents agreed that through the traditional institution, effective communication, especially between the people and 91.1% of the responses, indicated that the majority of the respondents behave that the cost incurable by the council government has been minimized through adoption of traditional institution’s conflict control mechanisms. 80.5% of the responses indicated many of the respondents do not share the view that collaboration for development exists between the traditional institution apparatus and modern-day local government system
The study identified the advisory role of traditional leaders (82.%), constitutional arrangement (77.7%) interference of state government (77.6%), and institutional arrangement (91.1%) as the prominent factors undermining the reflection of tendencies of traditional institutions in the modern local government administrative system
Summary
Evidence of plurality and diversity in the pre-colonial Africa cultures and local governance structures are well documented in the literature. The traditional institutions of local governance and administration of the Africa kingdoms provided platforms upon which their subjects were governed. These antediluvian empires and kingdoms were known for the level of sophistication in their administrative machinery. The Oyo Empire Oyo State in the western region of Nigerian was prominent among the pre-colonial West Africa Kingdoms for the level of sophistication which characterised her political and administrative systems [13, 8]. The Oyo Empire operated a confederated state by giving town autonomy to govern themselves with a high degree of sophistication in local administration built on well-structured traditional political institutions.
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