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Journal VOL. 1 NO. 2, September. 2020, ISSN: 2714 - 4054

 

Local Government Autonomy and the Nigerian Constitution: A Paradox

Awosika Felix Olanrewaju

 

ABSTRACT

Local Government was first and formally recognized as the third tier of government in Nigeria through the 1976 Guidelines for Local Government Reforms. As such, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in section 7 and section 162 provided for the political/administrative and financial autonomy of the local government respectively. Thus, the 1979, 1989 and 1999 Constitutions recognized the local government as a third tier of government, subject to the control of State governments. The abuse of these provisions in the Constitutions, especially by the State government, has brought to the fore-front the question of local government autonomy. There are agitations for more power to be given to local government in the spirit of a working federalism. The level of interference in local government administration by state governments has reduced local government to a mere appendage of state government. This explains why members of the political elite engage each other in a-tug-of-war over whose apron-string the local government should be tied to, rather than allow local governments operate autonomously. Extant studies have largely failed to probe the paradox of state governments' persistent failure to respect constitutional provisions on local government autonomy, it is the view of this paper that local government deserves and should be granted sufficient autonomy to strengthen Nigeria's federalism and the only option is a review of the Constitution. Provisions should be put in place to check the loopholes in the Nigerian constitution that give room for such abuses by the State governments. The methodology adopted here is the content analysis of existing literature on local government and administration in Nigeria.

 

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