CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In all emergent states, local government has become the main fundamental instrument for the

acceleration and sustenance of development. Local government is widely acknowledged as a

viable instrument for development and for the delivery of social services to the people. It is

believed that this third tier of government is strategically placed to fulfil this condition as a

result of its proximity to the rural people, which enhances its ability to easily articulate and

aggregate the demands of the people (Ugwu, 2008). As observed by Agagu (2004), the need to

catalyze balanced development, maximize citizens’ participation, and stimulate government

responsive service delivery necessitates the creation of the local government. The local

government serves as a form of political and administrative structure facilitating

decentralization, national integration, efficiency in governance, and a sense of belonging at the

grassroots. The local government is a unit of administration all over the world.

The Local Government is the closest tier of government to the people in Nigeria, yet the

resident population in it is denied the benefits of its existence. This is evident in the

environmental state, deteriorating public school buildings, poor market facilities and lack of

health care centres. The failure of the Local governments in the area of service delivery has

made the citizens to lose trust in government as an institution. In some areas, council officials

are better known for the harassment of citizens than service delivery (Olusola, 2011). The

major concern here is the extent to which goods and services are delivered to local citizens in

the right quantity and at the right time.

The constitution assigns service delivery responsibilities to the three tiers of government with

the states and local governments playing the most significant role in the delivery of basic

services such as education, health, housing, water, and waste disposal services. Given the

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 Millennium Development Goals and the huge resources that have accrued to the various levels

of government, it is pertinent to review the performance of service delivery since the country’s

return to democratic rule in 1999.

2.2 CONCEPT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

There is the need to explore what exactly is meant by local government. It is difficult

to find a single and comprehensive conceptualisation of local government acceptable

to both the developing and developed countries of the world. Local government is a

government at the grassroots level. According to Ojofeitimi (2000), the word “local”

connotes that councils are meant for small communities and the word “government”

means that they have certain attributes of government. The concept of Local

Government may be seen as a segment of a constituent state or region of a nation

state, established by law to provide public services and regulate public affairs within

its area of jurisdiction (Ikelegbe, 2005). As King (1988) observes, the local

government is universally found in modern politics, although it goes by various

appellations. Its legitimacy lies in its official tasks to represent the interests or wishes

of the local inhabitants and to administer to their needs. Founded on democratic

ideals, it is required that they be given an opportunity to control their affairs at this

level, especially since this is the point at which their interests and welfare are most

likely to be directly affected.

Local government is a government at the grassroots level of administration, meant for

meeting peculiar grassroots need of the people (Agagu, 1997). Lawal (2000) defines

local government as that tier of government closest to the people, which is vested

with certain powers to exercise control over the affairs of the people in its domain.

Local government as a system of public administration at a local level, charged with

the responsibility of bringing the people at the grassroots closer to the government.

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He however, regretted that a critical survey of local governments in Nigeria today

slows at most the same scene; that is, they are living in the shadow of the federal

government that have resulted to the abysmal failure of the system (Usman, 2010).

Local government is a politico-administrative arrangement which entails the

devolution of authority to plan, make decisions and manage public functions from the

central government to subordinate organisations, agencies or units of government,

either geographically or structurally (Anyanwu, 1999). Emezi (1984) on the other

hand perceived local government as “system of local administration under local

communities that are organized to maintain law and order, provide some limited

range of social amenities, and encourage cooperation and participation of inhabitants

towards the improvement of their conditions of living. It provides the community

with formal organizational framework which enables them to conduct their affairs

effectively for the general good.

From the above definitions, the following basic characteristics of local government

can be identified; it is a tier of government which is subordinate to central or regional

government. It involves both the administrative and political processes of

governmental power. Its area of authority is delimited by the statute establishing it. It

has constitutional or statutorily mandated power to perform certain legislative,

administrative and judicial functions. Its council is made up of elected representatives

who are responsible to the electorate in the discharge of the functions assigned to

them. Within the limit of its power, it has legal autonomy to make policies, to prepare

its own budget, to hire its own staff and to execute its own policies; and it has a

corporate personality.

It is the unique way in which it combines the political and the administrative roles, or

the democratic and service agency functions, that characterizes local government. A

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local government is a legal entity that allows residents of a defined geographic area to

provide services of a common interest. But it is also a democratic institution,

governed by an elected council accountable to the residents and to which they can

address their collective concerns. It is an instrument that residents can potentially use

to influence positive change and development in their local community.

Ola (1984) identifies three schools of thought in the functional conceptualization of

the local government as a governmental unit. These include democratic-participatory

school, developmental school, and efficient service delivery school. In this article

attempt is made to examine efficient service delivery school as a result of its

importance to this study.

The advocates of efficiency services believe that the crux of this theory is that the

main purpose of local government is to provide services to the local people. The

efficiency services theory also stipulates that the smallness of the population allows

for efficient provision of the basic social amenities. It also allows for flexibility in

decision- making and implementation. In addition, the theory stipulates that local

government exist to articulate and aggregate the interests and aspirations of the people

for better and more efficient services. However, from the perspective of the

efficiency-services school, the appropriate functional focus of local government

should be the provision of services, and its success or failure has to be judged by this

yardstick (Ola, 1984). The theory argues that what is central and important to the

people is the knowledge and articulation of the problem confronting the people and

finding appropriate solutions to the problems. The theory further argues that since the

officials of the local government councils are indigenes of the areas, they are in a

better position to understand the needs of the people and provide efficient services for

their welfare. The proximity of the local government to the grassroots makes it

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 especially suited to provide certain functions far more efficiently and in a more cost

effective manner than the much more remote government at the higher level. Such

functions should be allocated to the local governments with powers, resources and the

necessary autonomy to handle them. This then is not a mere decentralization of

central governmental authority, for if it is, it will require a degree of routine

supervision by the central or state government that will not be conducive efficient

service delivery, the raison d’être of the local government as a unit of government.

2.3 SERVICE DELIVERY AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL

Effective service delivery involves a clear understanding of the specific services an

organization provides, and its target customers. Understanding the service

characteristics enhances how their customers see the services an organization

provides. According to Nash and Nash (2004), effective service delivery is the

provision of services to a buyer in such a way the buyer's expectations can be met or

exceeded while, at the same time, the business remains viable. Effective service

delivery is rendering services that correspond to the customers’ desires, needs and

expectations. This concept emanates from the perceived need to treat members of the

public that require government services like a private-sector entrepreneur would treat

his/her customers. This is against the backdrop that a major obstacle to efficient and

effective delivery of government services is the attitude of public servants to members

of the public who are their customers (Fagbemi, 2006).

A customer is the direct recipient of a service through dealings with the service

provider. Customers can be internal or external. Internal customers refer to those that

receive services from other divisions within the same organization, while external

customers are those outside the service providing organization.

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2.4 PERSPECTIVE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT CREATION AND SERVICE

DELIVERY

The local government is essentially created as a viable political and administrative

organ for the transformation of all communities and for delivery of essential services

to the citizens. Local government plays a central role in enabling the achievement of

development at the grassroot level. Governments should therefore continuously seek

new and better ways to build service institutions that have the capacity to champion

and advance the course of development. Local government must create an appropriate

and conducive environment for the people at the local level through efficient and

effective service delivery. It is responsible for the creation of an appropriate and

conducive environment in which all sectors of the economy can perform optimally,

and it is this catalytic role of local government that propelled governments all over the

world to search continuously for better ways to deliver their services (Aluko, 2011).

By law, local governments are mandated to provide the following public goods and

services: establishment and maintenance of roads within the towns of the district,

including sidewalks, street lights, and street drainage system, construction of water

reservoirs in towns and villages, construction and management of primary schools.

Other essential functions include the construction and management of centres for the

care of the mother and the child, physical planning of the settlements of the districts

and registration of the immovable property, solid waste collection and disposal, food

and livestock markets, slaughterhouses, management of self-help projects, registration

and maintenance of civil register, and issuing business licenses, among others.

A key purpose of local government is to promote the well-being and quality of life of

citizens and communities through effective and accountable representation and

efficient performance of functions and delivery of services. Local authorities have

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certain advantages over more centralised organisations. The constitution assigns

service delivery responsibilities to the three tiers of government with the states and

local governments playing the most significant role in the delivery of basic services

such as education, health, housing, water, and waste disposal services. Local

government’s commitment to the principles of quality customer service have been

illustrated in recent years through a variety of practical developments, such as

extending opening hours of operation, improving facilities, providing more accessible

services, e-government initiatives, and published service standards, in many cases

through public customer charters and customer service actions plans.

In Nigeria, government’s services are described as inefficient, ineffective, and never

meeting clients’ demand on time. When the present government came into power, it

had vowed to change the lives of the citizens of the country for the better. It became

necessary to change the methods of delivering services to the people. For the

government to be able to bring this ideal to reality, it was then urgent to move away

from the conventional approaches to public service delivery where government was

the sole provider of services to the public and seek alternative, cost effective and

efficient ways of delivering services to the public in a manner prescribed by the

Constitution.

Nyamukachi (2009) describes three ways in which government failure to deliver

services through local government can be interpreted: inability to achieve the goals

that government has planned and budgeted for; failure to deliver on unplanned and

unbudgeted goals; this becomes difficult to achieve as government’s plans are linked

to the budget. If not planned for, it means it is not budgeted for and therefore it will

not be realized during that time. This, however, reflects on the government’s planning

process and the level of community involvement. The inability to render quality

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service is evident by the number of poor quality of services, the number of clinics that

are not properly equipped and the quality of roads that are constructed.

Poor service delivery and governance remains an overwhelming challenge in most

local government in Nigeria. Of major concern is the degree of corruption,

institutional capacity constraints relating to appropriate skills and staff, lack of

transparency, dysfunctional of ward committees, lack of accountability by councillors

and municipal officials, lack of public participation in issues of governance, failure to

comply with municipal legislation and other by-laws, failure to prioritize community

needs and budgeting processes not aligned, tensions between the political and

administrative sections of the municipalities and weak financial viability of local

governments.

The present 1999 Nigeria Constitution recognizes the local Government as the third

tier system of government. However, nearly all the local governments in Nigeria are

either crippled by the force of the state or willfully not performing to people’s

expectation in the country. One then ask these among many questions: what is the

role of the local government and what is the role of the state and how can it improve

the frame work within which local government operates in line with the new public-

private- partnership of the Federal Government?

Describing the requirements of the access principle for effective public service

delivery, Batho (2006) explains that all citizens should have equal access to the

services to which they are entitled. The openness and transparency principle has it

that citizens should be told how national and provincial (states, local governments)

departments are run, how much they cost, and who is in charge.

Challenges to Effective Service Delivery at the Grassroots Level in Nigeria

It is an irony of fate that the military induced reforms in the Nigerian Local

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Government has its attendant contradictions since the military structure is essentially

hierarchical, thus the operation of Local Government cannot be isolated from such

contradictions that characterized military hegemony. Adeyemo (1996) opined that the

Nigerian Federalism remains a formidable problem is evident in the various

contradictions of military rule and the decrees they have spurned. One of the greatest

challenges is that of limited capacity. Although their strength and capacity have

grown steadily since independence, local governments are still not able to perform

their roles and discharge their functions much as expected. Their autonomy is limited

and they remain unable to manage essential functions without assistance from central

government.

One of the most serious problems currently militating against local government is on

the exact status of local government under 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic

of Nigeria. The problem according to Adeyeye (2001) arises out of the various

provisions in the constitution, which tend to contradict or impair one another.

Similarly, some of these provisions are blatantly ambiguous, and if stretched, could

easily result into operational or functional stolidity. Similarly, the continuous

overbearing role being exercised by the states poses a tremendous threat to the

autonomy of Local Government. These can be seen within the realm of various

contradictory rules, instructions, and supervisory powers passed down to the local

councils, some of which are outside the constitutional jurisdictions of the Local

Governments. Local government authority in Nigeria lacks the requisite financial

autonomy desirable and necessary for effective management of their financial

resources. The much touted local government autonomy envisaged by the theory and

practise of fiscal federalism in Nigeria is more or less a political gimmick. That is

precisely why it is a myth rather than reality (Akindele & Olaopa, 2002).

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To talk of absence of effective service delivery in local government is to talk of the

presence of corruption in the local government system in Nigeria. Local governments

have become vineyard of corruption where council political officers sit to share the

statutory allocation from the federation account. Instead of being used for public

good, the allocations are diverted to personal use. Indeed, since the advent of local

government in Nigeria in the 1950s, Odion-Akhaine (2009), noted that the social

problem of corruption has dogged it. To be sure, local government is no longer local

government but local corruption. It has thrived, progressed, and flourished unabated

in Nigeria. Corruption has taken the central stage in most local governments. This

tendency is obviously a national malady. Most internally generated revenues do not

go to the local government account. It is viewed by patrons of ruling parties and their

clients as political reward for ‘faithfully enabling the party to win or remain in office’.

The sources of these revenues are regarded as “Cash Point” for daily reimbursement

of ‘operators’. At the end of the day, the local governments are worst off financially.

Little wonder, they now depend on the federal and state governments for funds to at

least, pay the monthly salaries and wages of their workers. It may not be off the mark

to suggest that what most local governments do in recent times is merely source for

money to pay their workers salaries and wages. All other developmental projects and

programmes are put on hold ‘until the financial condition of the council improves’,

the local authorities would refrain.

Corruption has been institutionalized to the point of accepting it as part of our system.

Albeit, corruption is ubiquitous; it is found all over the world, but the degree of its

manifestation varies form system to system. At the grassroots level, corruption has

been canonically accommodated, entertained, and celebrated within the system. In the

local government setting, corruption is misnomer labelled and euphemistically

10
referred to as “EGUNJE” (a slogan which means “illegal offer” in Nigeria). Kolawole

(2006) laments this situation when he opines that “in spite of the establishment of the

Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC),

corruption still thrives in our society.” In his analysis, Kolawole was of the view that

the lack of funds was no more a constraint on local government performance, but a

mismanagement and misappropriation of the funds accruable to it.

Adedeji (1970) blames the ineffectiveness of local administration on the following

reasons: lack of mission or lack of comprehensive functional role; lack of proper

structure (i.e. the role of local governments in the development process was not

known); low quality of staff; and low funding. According to him, these problems lead

the local governments into a vicious circle of poverty because inadequate functions

and powers lead to inadequate funding which result in the employment of low skilled

and poorly paid staff.

Another problem of local government in Nigeria is inadequate finance to carry out its

statutory responsibilities. Local governments do not posses viable sources of

generating funds especially the rural based ones. They therefore depend heavily on

fund allocations from the federation account for the purpose of carrying out their

basic responsibilities. This problem from the viewpoint of Enemuo (1999) arises from

their incapacity to raise funds internally and insufficient transfers from the central

governments. Local governments in the country lack the required finance to make

their impact felt in every community under their jurisdiction. This has greatly affected

the effectiveness and performance of local government in Nigeria. Local level

political leadership has a significant role in strengthening local government.

Local level leadership has grown since independence but the capacity of many

councillors leaves much to be desired. The grassroots organizations such as

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Community Development Associations need to be more active, and community

participation strengthened. Productivity of local level organizations remains another

challenge despite various productivity enhancing measures such as work

improvement teams and performance management systems. Declining standards of

integrity are also a matter of concern (Sharma 1998). The administrative machinery’s

accountability to the people needs to be strengthened, and administration needs to

become more responsible, responsive and sensitive to peoples’ needs and

expectations. It is common knowledge that some staff members of local government

councils are not recruited solely on the basis of the possession of requisite knowledge

and experience. Political considerations and patronage in most cases take over their

recruitment policies, thus making lack of qualified staff to manage the books of the

local governments a grave problem.

Employment at local government level in Nigeria is based on favouritism, nepotism,

ethnic and political consideration and other extraneous factors that replaced and

displaced competence, qualification, experience and performance. Entrance into the

local government staff forum is usually through junior staff cadre as it is the

compensatory tool of the chairman as necessitate by spoils system and prebendalism.

This grade level 01-06 whose payment status is as low as N24,000.00 (US$150) at

most is naturally not suitable for any skilled worker. A graduate of any field, all

things being equal, will not listen to such pronouncement let alone accepting the

offer. If he does, thanks to unbaiting unemployment, he must, as a matter of necessity,

device another means of adding up to his salary, which ordinarily cannot meet his

physiological needs. Therefore, the local government suffers (Emeh, et al 2009).

Onyishi (2002) blamed the problems of personnel department of the local government

on over centralization hence lumping seldom makes staff assessment efficient. Onah

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(2002) pointed at political interference from the states and the influence of ethnicity,

favoritism and nepotism. Majorly, irregular payment of staff salaries and total

absence of fringe benefits and physical working conditions which are usually very

poor are all awful conditions impacting negatively on the personnel management of

local government councils.

The Way Forward: measures to meet the challenges

Effective service delivery must be tailored to the circumstances of the location. This

requires credible evidence based measures and sound economic reasoning. The best

way to make effective policy is to make sure that its guiding principles are evidence

based, learned from experience elsewhere, in addition to pragmatic mechanism to

expand the evidence base for Africa.

Efforts to strengthen service delivery should therefore be directed at building the

capacity of local government organizations. This requires clarity of policy and a

commitment to its implementation. People have to be taken on board and policies for

them have to be made with them. The local authorities must ensure that their finances

are not mismanaged and standards of integrity and accountability are maintained.

There has to be zero tolerance for corruption and mechanisms of control and

accountability have to be strengthened. The performance of local level political

leaders could be strengthened through organization of workshops, seminars and

published material which could enhance their knowledge and understanding of their

expected roles.

Accountability and transparency must be encouraged and promoted in the local

government system so as to attain good governance for effective development at the

grassroots level. Corruption must be deterred and punished in the local government

system to enhance efficient and effective service delivery at the grassroots level.

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There is need for a change of political values by the dominant political elite, to accord

local governments the needed autonomy to carry out their responsibilities. There is no

doubt that Nigeria has come a long way with the constitutional inclusion of local

government as a third level of government not solely dependent on the whims and

caprices of the states. While the motive of the constitutional recognition of local

governments which in the main is to ensure local government autonomy may not have

been fully realized in Nigeria due to the obvious failure of the higher level

governments especially state governments to respect the provisions.

Local governments in Nigeria need adequate autonomy that can facilitate their

operations and development of their localities. This should emanate from

institutionalized democratic process of elections for representative local government

councils as and when due. This should be in line with what obtains at the State and

Federal government levels where elections are timely conducted. Adequate autonomy

should be manifestly accorded local governments in other areas such as finance,

revenue generation and expenditure, personnel administration and development

matters. The State Joint Local Government account should be abolished. As a way

forward, a leaf could be borrowed from the way the federal government tried to tackle

the issue in 1988. There should be capacity building for local councils to take

advantage of modern tools of local governance that are being developed worldwide.

This must combine the political and administrative cadre of the councils.

Local governments need to have adequate and sustained sources of revenue, so that

they can be responsive to the needs of their communities. Revenues are not presently

collected in an efficient manner, though resistance from tax payers cannot be ruled

out. Financial management practices employed at the local governments was, until

recently, quite primitive. Councillors and local government staff should realize that,

14
 by law, they are mandated to provide services to the communities in their localities;

hence, greater service delivery must be planned and budgeted. Specifically, the

systematic collection and proper disposal of garbage should be given utmost attention,

as it grossly affects the health and well-being of the society.

2.5 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SERVICE DELIVERY

IN NIGERIA

Local government is one of man’s oldest institutions. The earliest form of local

government existed in the form of clan and village meetings. In fact, democracy itself

originated and developed along the lines of local government initiatives in the ancient

Greek city states (Agbakoba & Ogbonna, 2004). The history of local government

system in Nigeria could be traced back to the pre-colonial period when powerful

empires and kingdoms existed in Nigeria, such as, Oyo Empire, Borno Empire,

Sokoto Emirate, Jukun Kingdom, Nupe Kingdom, and Igala Kingdoms, among

others. These empires and kingdoms had other smaller districts, wards, towns and

villages which were subjected to their authorities. The subordinate governments

operated their own unique administration suitable for their cultural and religious

needs and aspirations. The bulk of the administrative activities of these kingdoms and

empires took place at these levels. This form of administration could aptly be referred

to as Local government.

The advent of British colonial administration in Nigeria brought about a change in

local government administration in which the method of leadership changed from the

traditional to the British colonial government. The colonial administration of local

government that was established was based on Indirect Rule system. This required

that administration at the local level should be carried out through the existing

traditional rulers and institutions. In the areas where there were no existing traditional

15
rulers, and/or institutions, like in the South East, new ones were created. This led to

the establishment of Native Authority in its most rudimental forms. The Native

Authority Ordinance promulgated in 1910 which gave impetus to the system of

indirect rule and recognized the traditional rulers as Sole Authority. The main

function of the traditional ruler was to maintain law and order (Asaju, 2010).

In pre-colonial times, the antecedent of local government was the native

administration established by the colonial administration. It was meant to adapt to

purposes of local government structures already present in the institutions of the

various ethnic groups. The idea was for these existing structures to develop into

effective tools of government ready for use (after pertinent modifications) by the

colonialists. The Native Administration was charged with the collection of taxes,

maintenance of law and order, road construction and maintenance, and sanitary

inspection, especially in township areas (Diejomaoh & Eboh, 2010). The local

government system has been a major feature of the Nigerian government and politics

since colonial rule; though over the years, there have been changes in name, structure,

and composition, while the system was operated differently all over the country

(Agagu, 2004). It was on this premise that the rising tide of progress, growth, and

development experienced in the local government was based.

Available record shows that the first local administration ordinance Nº 4 of 1916

which was designed to evolve from Nigeria’s old institutions best suited form of rule

based on the people’s habit of thought, prestige and custom (Bello-Imam, 1990). Ayo

(1995) observes that the Nigerian local government system had undergone series of

metamorphosis. He noted that the system has been restructured, re-organized and

revitalized depending on the regime in power as well as the nature and level of

interest of such regime in local government administration. Administration systems at

16
the grassroots level in Nigeria had always been in operation since time immemorial

among the various people now christened Nigeria, even before the colonial masters

set their feet on the soil of Nigeria (Awofeso, 2004). Put differently, it is not

debatable that the history of local government system in Nigeria is older than the

advent of the erstwhile colonial masters. Colonialism, however, helped to widen the

course of history of Nigerian administration systems as it contributed significantly to

the evolution of local government in the country. This explains why many scholars

are of the view that local government in Nigeria emerged from the British colonial

administration in the country.

The 1976 local government reform, carried out by the military administration of

General Obasanjo, brought about uniformity in the administrative structure of the

system. The reform introduced a multi-purpose, single tier local government system

for the whole country (Ajayi, 2000). The local government is essentially created as a

viable political and administrative organ for the transformation of all communities

and for delivery of essential services to the citizens. The primary purpose of the local

government and the basis for its existence is to create a mass development impetus to

the grassroots transformation (Adeyemo, 1995). The current platform for local

government practice in Nigeria came into existence in 1976. It created a uniform

structure of an elected council with specific functions and financial base which drew

directly from the federation account. The new platform represented a departure from

the myriad of practices, often with regional flavours, which had evolved under

colonial rule from the Native Authority system.

The Local Governments underwent their first major reform in 1976 during the

military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo. These reforms formed the

foundation of the present-day local government system, and were attempts to

17
 restructure the Local Government administration to a form fitting for modern society.

The fundamental result of the 1976 reforms was to introduce a uniform system of

local government administration throughout the country. It was based on a conviction

that a strong local authority with clearly defined roles and responsibilities in a power-

sharing relationship with the states is an institutional imperative. Based on the 1976

reforms, local government became recognized as a tier of government entitled to a

share of national revenue consequent on its constitutionally allocated functions

(Imuetinyan, 2002).

Since these reforms, successive governments have tinkered with the local government

structure with a view of enhancing its capacity for good governance. Fundamentally,

the local government is created to serve the rural communities. The local government

is expected to mobilize and harness local resources and ensure their effective

utilization, with the support of the state and federal governments.

2.6 THEORETICAL FRAME WORK

Although there are extant competing theories in social sciences and administration

that can guide a study of this nature, the one we consider suitable in analyzing and

understanding the problem under investigation is the structural- functionalism theory.

In its simplest form, structural-functionalism or in many contexts simply

functionalism “sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts”

([Link] functionalism) with each structure performing

role function. The failure of one structure leads to dysfunctionalism or disorderliness

in the system.

Structural-functionalists like Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell posited that for

proper understanding of the structures (institutions) in the society, there is need to

place them in a meaningful and dynamic historical context

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([Link]

Situated within the present study, the above postulations have relevant applicability in

understanding and analyzing service delivery in Nigerian local governments. Local

governments are structures created in Nigeria to perform specific functions that will

help bring government closer to the people. As advised by Almond and Powell, an

historical study of local governments in Nigeria from its traditional forms like the

traditional political system, Native Authority and modern local government systems

has brought to fore some of the service delivery functions of local governments in

Nigeria. Furthermore, the idea of dysfunctionalism or disorderliness advanced by

structural functionalists could be used in explaining the incapacity of local

governments to deliver services to the people in a timely, adequate and satisfactory

manner. As a system consisting of interrelated parts or components, local

governments cannot exist in isolations.

Put differently, Local Government Councils in Nigeria consist of departments like

works, land, survey and housing; agricultural and natural resources; health, education

and social services; administration; budget and statistics and treasury. Each of these

departments must interact together to keep the local government moving and

effective. Besides, the interactions within the local government milieu, interactions

with bodies like the federal government, states, local service commissions, local

government councils, rural communities and others must be sustained in an

atmosphere of intergovernmental relations aimed at delivering quality service in a

timely, satisfactory, honest, effective and transparent manner. Three departments are

inevitable as Almond aptly stated wherever there are functions, there must be

structures to perform them (cited in Okoli, 2000:33). To justify the reasons for

creating local governments, local government spending, functions performed by local

19
government workers, interactions between and among its component parts, projects

executed by local governments should be aimed at “providing the basic services to

which each citizen is entitled in a timely, fair, honest, effective and transparent

manner” (‘Servicom and the citizen’, [Link]).

Nigerians have the right to be served right whether at federal, state or local

government levels. So, ‘dysfunctionalism’ in the operations of local governments in

Nigeria can be corrected through identifying factors that have hampered service

delivery and making appropriate prescriptions (recommendations) based on the

findings of the study.

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