ELITE CONSPIRACY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

  • Nnamani, Desmond PhD
  • Okeke, Martin PhD
  • Nduba, Johnpaul
  • Oforma Eze
Keywords: local government, efficiency, council, rural areas, service delivery, development

Abstract

The case of local government in developing political systems has carried the conceptual debates by consequently presenting local government practice as rocket science, obscured by elite greed and everyday predation. The local government system in Nigeria is immensely characterized by this obscurity, greed and hands-on predation. Local government is the bedrock for every political process in Nigeria; the administrative process will thrive if only the rural dwellers that form part and parcel of the grassroots are allowed to make inputs in rural governance. In Nigeria, local government has no interactive links with the community for which it is designed to take care of. Local government located at the grassroots is run by elites who are alienated from the culture of the people experience inadequate service delivery in their area. The argument reveals that the elites and actors in the corridor of power manipulate the legal basis of local level to the detriment of the people at the grassroots level. The paper suggests possible ways to resolve some attitudes meted by the elites which is inimical to the progress of local level in Nigeria. The paper made attempts to suggest alternatives to the predatory system of local government in Nigeria, whose aim of serving as vehicles for service delivery, is widely believed to have been largely defeated.

Published
2021-07-12
Section
Articles