Decentralisation and Development from Nigeria’s Perspectives
Keywords:
decentralisation, development, devolution, derivation, corruption, funding and sub-unitsAbstract
Nigeria was decentralised into various component units comprising 774 Local Governments, in addition to numerous Local Council Development Areas; 36 states; as well as a Federal Capital Territory. These were with a view to fast-tracking development by responding to the needs of the citizenry; by bringing government closer to the people; and the people to the government, for their needs to be better addressed, and for the general development of the country. Decentralisation of the country notwithstanding, with numerous human and natural resources readily available for development, the country is still fraught with development challenges. This study to this extent analyses the nexus between decentralisation and development in Nigeria. The study gathered information through secondary sources as well as researchers' observation of Nigeria’s governance activities. The study revealed that, decentralisation of responsibilities to lower levels of government without commensurate funds to carry out those responsibilities; low taxes raising powers by subunits of government; the lack of political will on the part of the central government to appropriately devolve power to subunits of government; the issue attached to resource control; corruption among the officials of decentralised areas; conflict over siting of administrative headquarters and failure to integrate diverse groups of decentralised areas are some of the reasons for unworkable decentralisation in Nigeria. The study concludes that decentralisation has not brought about the desirable development to Nigeria. Therefore, for decentralisation to aid development in Nigeria, all the highlighted challenges must be properly addressed and squarely dealt with.
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