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Nigerian Federalism And Local Government Autonomy
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A battery of legal, financial and administrative
controls… so called “local government unitsâ€. In Most government in
African have opted for direct control by central government of the local
government through reality operate like field administrative units of
central Government or worse still exist as parallel institutions to the
government’s field administration controlled by both the central and
field units.
The heavy dependence of local government in Nigeria for
instance to statutory allocation from the federal government whittles
down the autonomy of the former, it puts local government at the mercy
of the federal government. Furthermore, successive Nigerian government
(both federal & state) has interfered in the actual functioning of
the local government. For instance between 1984 and late 1987, local
government council were abolished and the administration of the affairs
of the local government were placed entirely on the sole administrator.
Again in 1991, the elected local government council were disbanded by
the military government of General Abacha and replaced with caretaker
committees.
Also the financial autonomy of local government has on
many occasions been confisticated by the State Government. This is
currently the case in Nigeria were some state government confisticate
federal allocations to local government and give whatever amount they
like to the chairman to run local government (Ezeani, 2004: 186).
In the critique of the government of the then Eastern Region of Nigeria, Akpan (1982:160)
By
the use of these central government official in these roles, by
limiting the financial and executive powers and functions of local
government to the whims and pleasures of the central government by
taking over control of staff serving local government, by assuming the
main financial responsibility for local government services; Nigeria
from independence practiced a veiled form of integrated administration
decentralization with the so-called local government serving as nothing
but mere arms and agents to the central government.
It is no surprise
therefore, that Ronald Wraith who has written extensively on local
government, once had to change the title of his book from “local
government in West Africa†to local administration in West Africaâ€
because he realized that in most cases that what exist in West African
countries were mere local administration rather than local government
(Wraith 1982: 224). Despite these far reaching measures as recommended
by the reforms especially 1976 thereby making it the bedrock of modern
local government system in Nigeria, one can safely assert that the local
government’s autonomy is more of a theory than in the real practice of
it and this is an impediment to its success. These in the view of
Olugbemi (1986) can be summarized as, Continued jurisdiction of state
government over the most important functions allocated to local
government in the guideline and as stipulated in the fourth schedule of
1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The failure of the
federal government to effect a more equitable sharing of the tax field
among the three levels of government. Continued imposition of various
central government controls in the selection of councilors, in budgeting
and budget control, in policy determination including the determination
of fiscal policies, in personnel management e.t.c. which tend to
diminish the value of government in local government.
1.6 Theoretical Framework
Theory
has been defined as set of interrelated constructs, concepts,
propositions or ideas that presents a systematic view of a phenomenon by
specifying relations among variables with the purpose of explaining and
predicting the phenomenon (kerlinger 1977:57). Following from the
above, we can deduce that theory serves as a foundation of any social
science research. It provides a logical explanation of a phenomenon or
event and at the same time, predicting its possible outcome. Theoretical
framework on the other hand has been identified by Igwe (2005: 442-443)
as “the guide on the school of thought expressing some level or form of
existing relevant knowledge and adopted by the student or the
researcher as the foundation of his work. Chosen normally from any array
of political theories reviewed after thorough literature review.
Saliu
(2004:9) had underscored the importance of theoretical framework in
social science as he holds that the importance of applying theories to
social science research efforts has long been realized. In view of the
scholars of the behavioral approach social science is not scientifically
based unless it is backed up by a theory.
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