LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN NIGERIA AS AN EMERGING CONCEPTS: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Local Government Areas were basically created to be the government at the grassroot. It has powers to formulate policies, prepare budgets and a measure of control over its own staff. The aim of the paper is to find out the Issues and Challenges of local governments in Nigeria while the specific objectives include to evaluate the Constitutional provisions like Functions, Financing and Control of Local governments in Nigeria among others. The implication of the recent judgment by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on local government autonomy will also be appraised in this paper. The researcher adopted the doctrinal research method which involves primary data of statutes, legislations, treaties, Case Laws, etc. The findings revealed that the local governments are the third tier of the government which should be autonomous but are constitutional handicapped by its provisions which made them appendage of both the Federal and State government. The study concluded that the functions, finances and control are the statutory requirements for the effective operations of the local government areas as the third tier government. The paper recommends that both the state and federal government should lose their grips off the local governments to enable her fulfill the functions and expectations as the third tier government. The development of local infrastructure, political education and enlightenment, encouraging political representations are core areas of the local government in Nigeria.