Waziri Adio The important issue of local governance bubbled to a prominent position on Nigeria’s policy agenda lately, courtesy of the case instituted by the Federal Government against the 36 states at the Supreme Court and a surge in public commentaries on local governments’ autonomy, administration and elections. Irrespective of how the Supreme Court decides, Nigeria is overdue for another and a more thoughtful reform of governance at the local level. The reform, to be effective, must be grounded in proper diagnosis.
Hence, the need to refocus the ongoing debate on this important issue. There is a consensus among policy makers and the commentariat that local governance in Nigeria is miserably broken. There is also a general agreement that this should be the most important level of government because, being the closest to the citizens, it is the level where Nigerians should feel the essence and the presence of government the most.
However, there are disparate views about why this most important level of government is, sadly, the least effective. Without a proper understanding of what ails local governance in the country, we are unlikely to evolve appropriate and effective prescriptions. This will mean that our attempts to deliver development to most of our people will continue to be constrained and compromised.
Since 1976, when we undertook a groundbreaking reform under the military, we have tried, unsuccessfully, to reposition local administration in the country. We hav.
