THE STRUGGLE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY IN NIGERIA: THE LEGAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICALMATTERS ARISING

Abstract

Nigeria stands above other federations of the world in its constitutional recognition of Local Government Councils (LGCs). From colonial days when grassroots government (Native Authorities) in Nigeria ran Native Authority Police, had sources of income that are at the disposal of states today; to 1976 when the local government revolution better known as the local government reforms of1976, grassroots government in Nigeria has borne the identity ofa tier of government. The Murtala/Obasanjo led Federal Military Government initiated what was later described by the late Brigadier Musa Yar'Adu'a as the decision of the 'Federal Military Government' of Nigeria 'to recognise as the third tier of government activity in the nation' and that Local Governments should do precisely what the word government implies i.e., governing at the grassroots'. Employing the doctrinal approach, this work shall review statutory and case law, juristic literal work, newspapers, internet based materials, reports etc., to achieve the aim of establishing the necessity of LGCs autonomy that states have been fighting against; the economic and political factors that have hindered the legal changes needed to achieve this autonomy. This work recommends, inter alia, for a grassroots mobilization of the membership of states' law making bodies to come into terms with the economic and socio-political need for LGCs' autonomy in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.