Definition
Local government is the government at the grass roots with a given population and constitutional power to elect officials for the administrative and regulatory functions in the local area.
Introduction
Local government system in Nigeria has its antecedence in the pre-colonial era when each of the separate communities that make up today’s Nigeria was administered in what has been variedly described by scholars as provincial, kingship, empires systems, etc. (Kirk-Greene 1965; Fadipe 1970; Afigbo 1972; Atanda 1973). However, some discussions take the colonial period as the inception. These pre-colonial systems of local governance were very simple but with variation from place to place. An attempt to account for this variation by Adewunmi and Egwurube (1985) led to four role categorizations which are executive/participatory, nonexecutive/participatory,...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Adewunmi JB, Egwurube J (1985) Role of traditional rulers in historical perspectives. In: Aborisade O (ed) Local government and the traditional rulers in Nigeria. University of Ife Press, Ile-Ife
Afigbo AE (1972) The warrant chiefs. Longman, London
Atanda JA (1973) The new Oyo empire. Longman, London
Bello-Imam IB (1996) Local government in Nigeria: evolving a third tier of government. Heinemann Educational Books Nig. Plc. & French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), Ibadan
Daloz J-P (1989) The 1976 local government reform in Nigeria and the 1982 decentralisation reform in France: some comparative remarks. In: Aborisade O (ed) Nigerian local government reformed. Obafemi Awolowo University Press Limited, Ile-Ife
Fadipe NA (1970) The sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan University Press, Ibadan
Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) The 1999 constitution. Federal Government Press, Lagos
Kirk-Greene AHM (1965) The principle of native administration in Nigeria: selected documents 1900–1947. Oxford University Press, London
Uchendu V (1965) The Igbo of South East Nigeria. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Abati, O.O., Kugbayi, O. (2020). Local Government System in Nigeria. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3942-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3942-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences