States and Local Government Relationship in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Constitutional Provisions Versus Reality

Abstract

The constitutional lacuna and often back and forth on the position of the local government in Nigeria over the years are worrisome and keep begging for a lasting solution particularly the growing indifference of the state governments to accord needful respect to the extant laws, and the judiciary. Due to its inevitability in modern political systems, local government is a catalyst for development at the grassroots level. This inevitability becomes meaningful with the presence of both political and economic autonomy at the local level of governance. The absence of these two (political and economic autonomy) in the local governments across the country needs to be desired. Moreover, the thrust of this study is to stir ongoing debates on the constitutional provisions versus reality on the status of local government in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The main objective of the paper is to add to the ongoing debate on the state of local government in Nigeria, particularly its nature of relation with the state government, and to interrogate constitutional provision versus reality. The study is situated within the system theory to substantiate the importance of interdependence of parts to form a functional whole, relating it to dependency, and exploitative relations between state and local government in Nigeria. Similarly, the three models of coordinate, overlapping, and inclusive were examined to . The study utilized both the primary and secondary sources of data as a method of data collection, and the paper was analyze using a descriptive method. The paper argued that the recent Supreme Court judgment on July 11, 2024, on local government financial autonomy has pushed further the hitherto debate on the state of local government in Nigeria. Therefore, local government autonomy can only be meaningful if and where each level of government is bound by the constitution and does not accept dictates or directives from another level of government. The time is here for the political leaders to respect the constitution and the court judgments.