CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The local government has long being in existence although it is under the supervision of the state government in accordance to the constitution of the federal government of Nigeria. The local government is given it law and power by the constitution and rooted in the laws of the land.  According to Nigeria constitution in section 7(1) of the federal republic of Nigeria completely give their support to the various operations of the third tier government. Moreover, the constitution allows the democratically elected representatives of the people to man the local government affairs. According to Okoli (2005) in his work state that the third tier government came into existence as a result of the need for wide spread development in the country. Most importantly it is necessary to understand that the grassroots welfare and national development can be achieved through the third tier government. The very essence of this research work is simply to evaluate the roles of local government in national development.

There have being many protest as to regard national development through the development of the local governments in Nigeria. However, according to (Abada, 2012; Idike, 2013; Eze and Muanya, 2013; Uzuegbunam and Nwofia, 2014) all stated that the local governments in Nigeria is a neglected paradigm of national developmental mobilization.

The Nigerian condition has been depicted as a situation of affluence and affliction (Ibeanu, 2008), which importantly shows an apparent contradiction. Kuka (2012) further describes the Nigerian nation as being on autopilot.

According to the constitution, Local government represents the third tier of governmental organization in Nigeria and the others being the Federal and State governments. Frequently, the term “Grassroots administration” is employed when describing local government as this has more advantage of graphically describing the location of this governmental arrangement (Idike, 2013). In reality, local government is not vested with the powers and resources that it really deserves. It is also ironical that the Nigerian situation negates the essence of federalism (which is decentralization) by being highly centralized. Elsewhere, where the ideals and strategies for effective national development have been understood the correct way, Local government is the focus of government efforts at promoting national development. It becomes much visible overtime that to effectively develop, the people must be adequately mobilized (Okoli, 2005). A purposeful combination of the local (peoples) effort/energies with that of government with the objective of improving socio-economic conditions and encouraging political participation is a key factor in national development. According to Eze and Muanya (2013) stated that It also represents the objective expression of the energies of mobilized rural communities in concrete and tangible projects such as roads, clinics, schools, potable water and other communal initiatives that benefit the people. This study is specifically focusing of Local Government Councils in Lagos State.