DEMOCRACY AND CHALLENGES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Democracy and challenges of local government administration examines how the last tier of government in Nigeria is constrained from effective discharge of its statutory responsibilities. The mal-performance/docility of this tier negates the principles of devolution of power as enshrined in the constitution, in addition to compromising democratic ideals. Through content analysis of secondary sourced data in tandem with focus group discussion, the paper reveals that undue political interference and financial strangulation of the local government vertically and horizontally is considered responsible for mal- performance of this tier of government and it concludes that unless the states and the federal government adhered to true devolution as reflected in the constitution and in line with democratic governance, people at the grass roots that constitute much of the population could be deprived from national sense of belonging due to continued emasculation of local government in this three tier federal arrangement.