By Bayo Fasunwon
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The need and eventual quest for development predates the era of institutionalised globalisation. This is evident in the various life improvement mechanisms adopted by different societies, kingdoms, and empires, ever before the advent of colonialism. However, the intensification of interactions between and among nations in the contemporary world has made the issue of the attainment of sustainable development an enormous and compulsory task for the least developed and developing nations of the world. This makes local governments inevitable Thus in recent times, with the acceptance of the tenets and expected advantages of globalisation, democracy had gained much grounds in many developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. Democracy as opposed to any other form of government therefore portends a rule of the majority and thus the meeting of their developmental needs through the elected minority.

The 1976 local government reform handbook defined local government as Government at the local level exercised through representative councils established by law to exercise specific powers within defined areas.  The powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and intuitional and financial powers to initiate and direct the provision of services and to determine and implement projects so as to complement the activities of the state and federal government in their areas and to ensure, through devotion of functions to these councils and through the active participation of the people and traditional institutions that local initiatives and response to local needs and conditions are maximised.

Democracy in its intents and purposes is predicated on mass participation in local government affairs as against elite domination presently operational in the local government councils in Nigeria. Culled from the definition of local government,  government at the local level exercised through representative councils refers to a governing body that takes into cognizance mass participation in the choice and type of leadership in the local councils. Also, should give the council substantial control over local affairs, and initiate and direct the provision of services and to determine and implement projects so as to complement the activities of the state and federal governments in their areas imply the need for administrative independence in the local councils such that policies and projects executed in the local areas would of a necessity be according to the actual, not perceived, needs of the people. Thus, the need for mass participation as against elite dominance in local government affairs is reiterated in the need for the active participation of the people. Active participation in this case is not only restricted to voting during elections alone, but includes the presentation and articulation of local initiatives and response to local needs and conditions. By implication therefore, a local government that restricts mass participation to only vote during elections is not local government as it has negated the germane purpose and thus the mass ingredient needed for efficient and equitable provision of essential services and resource mobilisation for developmental purposes.

Thus, participatory governance should not (in Nigeria) have had much more impact in theory and practice than in the third tier of government that is the local government. However, in recent times, democratic values at the local government level have been eroded by the fiats of constituted authorities, who impose leadership on the people at the grassroots, thus preventing the participation of the real local people in their governance. Often times, people appointed by Governors are not qualified to administer the people. Qualification goes beyond academic nomenclatures to rural acceptance and legitimacy. A group of researchers went through all the local governments in a particular State and discovered that Caretaker Chairmen superimposed on the people were aliens to the people they govern. While it was true that they were indigenes of the local governments, the truth was that they were unknown in the neighbourhood. The outcome is that these unfamiliar indigenes did not know the needs of the people, and never cared to alleviate them.

The neglect of the performance of local governments functions as stipulated in the fourth schedule of the 1999 constitution comes with grave consequences. For example, every national epidemic emanates from Local governments before it becomes a national headache. When local governments are ill equipped to identify this disease and curtail them, then the nation and nationals die for it. These diseases are transmitted often through the neglect of drainages, lack of potable water, uncontrolled sewage disposal, lack of care of public cemeteries (which promotes the burial of the dead in homes and lands of the deceased), and ill equipped local heath centres.   Major accidents could have been averted if local governments had cleared the bushes on the sides of the roads and effect repairs on Trunk C roads. Lack of streetlights have promoted accidents and aided crimes in various places, while dilapidated schools and markets have contributed in no small measure to the socio-economic degradation of many societies.

The general excuse given by installed stooges of constituted authorities is the paucity of funds. Every month, the federal government announces the release of funds to the three tiers of government, but rarely would one hear of the allocation from the State Governments to the Local Government. Rather, there are insinuations that the State Governments divert and siphon monies of the Local Governments from the Federal Government. The remnant funds that go to the local government are also cornered and misappropriated for personal rather than public usage. These happen because the selected leadership was neither accountable nor loyal to the people over whom they exercise lordship. Rather, their loyalty went to the constituted authority that put them in power, and their pockets, which they have come to fill. The resultant outcome is the celebration of the provision of grassroots services that were not needed by the people and the utter neglect of essential services needed by the people. In the event of the subversion of the constitutional intents, what should the people do?

In recent times, high-pitched voices have clamored for the independence of the Local Government via the autonomy syndrome. It is perceived that autonomy would make the local government more proactive and productive. However, I beg to disagree. I am in the forefront for local government autonomy, but that is not the panacea for local governments tales of woes. Our present political class in the country is expert in hijacking laws and policies to their advantage and to the detriment of the masses. Local Government autonomy cannot be beneficial with the nature and caliber of followership at the grassroots.

There is the urgent need to cure Nigerians of their phobia for their representatives in power. The constituted authorities were so constituted by the people, and it is just right for the people to put the elected to task on productive governance. An average Nigerian fears to ask questions from local government chairmen; fears to report erring government officials, and even fears to demand for dividends of democracy from those they labored to install in office. This fear is so evident that the (s) elected rules with arrogance and impunity, even at the grassroots. Some have attributed this fear to lack of knowledge. If that is the case, then political education is essential for the masses at the grassroots level. They need to be educated on the functions of the local government, and their rights as citizens in the local government. One wonders what is been taught in Civic Education. There is nothing wrong in the people at the grassroots putting up strategies to demand for accountability and responsiveness. Property owners association, market women, artisans, the educated, and all need to gather and visit local governments to make effective demands for the development of their local government.

It has also been observed that the educated elites do not participate in politics at the grassroots. This is also a bane of grassroots development in Nigeria. Nobody can give what he does not possess. When local governance is left in the hands of semi-illiterates and illiterates, their focus would not fall short of corruption without service. When the intellectuals wake up to their political responsibility at the grassroots, they would be in position to understand constitutional rights, attract investments and even make recommendations to the State on the development needs and opportunities in the grassroots. I look forward to that day when Professors would become local government Chairperson and graduates would be Councilors.

 It is also pertinent to note that the participation of educated elites transcends politics. Hardly in Nigeria, would you find a local government with an effective 50 years development plan? Except for academic purposes, most local governments have not been subjected to developmental research over a long period. As the clamor for autonomy gain grounds, there is a need for the intellectuals in every local government to organise researches that would lead to the unearthing of the needs, prospects, and uniqueness of each local government areas. These researches would definitely pave the way for a long and short-term development plan of the local government and thus provoke national development on implementation.

Finally, local government administrations should be democratically constituted. It is my candid opinion that local government elective positions should be contested for on no party basis. While political parties are desirable, the burden of being subservient to the Oga at the top robs the grassroots the needed development. Membership of political parties at the grassroots often times prevents the emergence of the best and brightest candidates to lead the local governments from oblivion. Local governments need the best brains and service oriented personnel to drive its development. When elections are held on no party basis, then the loyalty of the elected shall be to the people and not to the party or the invisible hands that steer the ship to wreck.