Local Government Administration And Rural Governance
Nigeria’s local government system was established during the colonial era and managed in a fairly undemocratic manner with the authority of traditional rulers. Local government has been working to become more democratic and responsive to developmental needs over the past year. According to Agagu (1997:18), local government is comprised of democratically elected entities tasked with carrying out administrative and executive functions pertaining to the residents of a given district or location.
According to Lawal (2006:60), it is a political and administrative entity with legal authority to manage a certain locality. The duty, responsibility, and rights of local government are also drawn from the national or federal constitution. Local government is tasked with meeting the needs of those living in local, rural, or grassroots communities.
A catalyst for local, political, economic, and social development can be seen in the Local Government, which is the third tier of government and the lowest level of hierarchy in the three tiers of the federal system used in Nigeria.
Politically, it is anticipated that local government systems will facilitate citizen participation in governance and bring development closer to the populace. Socially, the system is meant to promote the widespread mobilization of material and human resources in order to strengthen community and self-help development initiatives. Economically, the system is anticipated to ensure that the benefits of development initiatives are dispersed fairly in order to encourage a balanced development across the entirety of Nigeria.
Hirschman (1958) observed that patterns of economic growth and development are rarely distributed equally over the entire territory of a given state, but rather are concentrated at certain places, creating a mosaic of regions with varying levels of affluence.
Nigeria’s political decentralization process has persisted, and as a result, the country’s territory has continued to be divided into smaller regions in an effort to achieve social justice. The enhanced statutory funding for local government areas is intended to bring about a change in the level of fundamental infrastructure services and amenities, including transportation, water, electricity, and services for communication, education, and health care, that are offered by L.G.As.
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