CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Development of Local Government in Nigeria
The evolution of local government in Nigeria has under gone a lot of changes. These are all geared towards making the local government a system that could serve the purposes for which they are created, before the emergence of the British Colonial/ Administration; various communities in Nigeria were governed through the instrumentality of their traditional political Institutions. These institutions were anchored on the people’s habits of thought, prestige and custom which are adapted to meet the new conditions for general development of their areas. Local authorities were empowered to charge and collect developmental rates based on a certain percentage of the income of the rate payers.
The council enjoyed the social autonomy of providing certain social services to the community, for instance the local government was vested with the responsibility of healthcare services delivery with the transfer of primary healthcare delivery system. In the 1950s, election was introduced according to the British model in the western and eastern parts of the country with some measure of autonomy in financial, general administration and in personnel which gave rise to tide of progress, growth and development experienced in the local government. Prior to this period, the British introduced native courts chaired by Chiefs, native treasuries where taxes collected from people were paid in for use by the local government. Native authorities were created with traditional rulers at the head of each authority. The traditional rulers continued to dominate local government’s administration until the military took over power. In 1966, from then the powers of the traditional rulers, especially in the northern region, reduced gradually. The newly created states in the Northern region increased popular participation in local government administration. Larger local authorities were broken to smaller ones and native authorities were changed to local governments.
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