AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY IF AHIAZU MBAISE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION/ BACKGROUNG OF THE STUDY

Local government as at colonial are existed as the instrumentalities of traditional authorities. Through the indirect rule administrate pattern of British colonization the indirect authority with overall supervision by the colonial powers.

The use of indigenous political institutions for purpose of weal government was contingent of modifications of some aspects Traditional government repaginate to European ideas. As a system to local government, it achieved a measure of success in the centralized and powerful system of Northern and western provinces of Nigeria. In the Eastern provinces, an artificial base known as the “Warrant Chiefs were created for its operation”.

Local government through the instrumentalities of traditional political institution was created purposely to reach out to the people at the remotest part of the country by the colonial master.

As the country made political progress under colonial rule, it was felt that the system of local government needed reorganization.   It has been agued that those reforms were undertaken by the colonial administration to stem the rising tide of the nationalistic movement. It is evident that political activities and other forms of social change forced local government reforms to swing in the direction of elected representatives which was associated with young /literate and “progressive element” and away form the “traditional element” as equated with chiefs, sons holding offices for life. The policy of the colonial government was to replace the native Administration system which was epitomized by the indirect rule philosophy with a system based broadly on the English model of country councils. Following the reorganization, local government legislation, patterned often the British model of country, urban and district councils were passed in Eastern and Western Nigeria in the 1950’s

In 1950 local government Act in the Eastern Region brought into being the three-tier council system ie. Country councils, District councils and local councils.

Due to the inadequacies of the 1950 ordinance, such as the system of taxation and allocation of function, supervision and control, it was replaced in the Eastern Region by the local government law of 1956 and further remedied by 1958 Act. This Act abolished the three-tier system and replaced it with district council. By 1960 a two- tier system was created namely country and local councils 3

In the Western Region, an ordinance was passed in 1952 with the same three-tier system, comprising divisional councils, district councils and local councils. By 1952, also in the Northern Region, the institution of sole Native Authority was abolished and in its place Chief-in-council and Chiefs-and-council were established.

The various form of local government in operation in Nigeria up till 1966 were modeled after the British system local government. The county system which was alien to the Nigerian culture and did not hold effectively

Post independence, the new role assigned to the local government was to provide effective structural likes with the regional government in their programes of economic growth. The search for the local government system more suited to the political culture was halted by the civil was.

Local government administration after independence the military government experience

The system of local government adopted in the former East central, south-Eastern and mid-western state was basically the some.