CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The local government, which is the third tier of government, has variously defined by many people.

Golding in his book local government defined it simply as the management of their own affairs by the people of a locality.

Akpan offered a more comprehensive definition when he wrote that local government entails the breaking down of country in to small units or localities for the purpose of administration, in which the inhabitants of the different units of localities concerned play a direct and full part through their selected representatives who exercise power or undertake function under the general authority of the national government.

We accept this latter definition since the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria endorse the functions assigned to local government by various state edicts and guarantees  democratically elected state.

The system of local government by democratically local government councils is under the constitution guarantees and accordingly, the government of every state shall ensure their existence under a law which provides for the establishment structure composition, finance and function of such    councils.

Prior to the federal military government local reform in 1976, the structure of one state to another quite remarkable changes have been made to the main features of our local government system since 1987. The reforms of the last  five 95) years have greatly transformed the native of inter government relations, especially  the relationship between state and local government, and the internal management organization of local government.

While most of the reforms had positive impact on local government administration   a few have had the opposite effect even if  they were well intentioned. The government also has had to reverse itself on the key reforms under the transition to civil programme.

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