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.
