Since time immemorial,
local government autonomy has been a discussing issue among academic scholars
cum researchers. Local government in Nigeria is a product of decentralization
and is established by law. As a federal state, Nigeria has three tiers of
government (federal, state and local) whose intergovernmental relations (which include
political, financial, judicial and administrative) are mainly established by
the constitution. Each tier is required to operate within its area of
jurisdiction, and any action to the contrary is null and void to the extent of
its inconsistency with the law. This is meant to guarantee the autonomy of each
tier.
Generally, local government is a form of
public administration which, in a majority of contexts, exists as the lowest
tier of administration within a country. In a federal system like Nigeria,
local government usually occupies the third tier government. Specifically,
local government is a unit of government below the central, regional or state
levels established by law to exercise political authority through a
representative council within a defined geographical area (Olisa, et al 1990).
Local government is also conceived as a system of local administration
instituted to maintain law and order, provide limited range of social amenities
and encourage co-operation and participation of inhabitants towards improvement
of their conditions of living (Emezi, 1981). From the foregoing definitions, it
is deducible to note a core variable like socio-economic development which is clearly
stated in the definitions. Through local administration, the living condition
of the inhabitants will be improved. The role of the local governments as vital
tool for rapid socio-economic development of rural, and urban centers have
taken a central stage albeit without a corresponding access to prerequisite
financial resources to meet this expectation.
Socio-economic
development means pure and adequate provision of basic infrastructure such as
roads, clinics, schools, potable water and other communal initiatives that benefit
the people. Local government is the focus of government efforts at promoting
development through purposeful combination of the local (peoples)
effort/energies with that of government with the objective of improving
socio-economic conditions and encouraging political participation is a key
factor in rural development. It represents the objective expression of the
energies of mobilized rural communities in concrete and tangible projects as
mentioned above. In order to enthrone
better local administration, local government has been going through various
reforms aimed at strengthening its capacity to effectively operate and play
significant developmental roles in national development process (Ogunna,
1996). However, the current platform for
local government administration in Nigeria started with the 1976 Guidelines for
Local Government Reforms. The Guideline gave the present local government
system its basic structure and functions as a third tier of government within
the Nigerian federal government arrangement (Abada, 2007; Ade, 2012). Unlike
the previous local government reforms, the 1976 reform conceptualized local
government as operating within a common institutional framework with defined
functions and responsibilities in line with national development objectives
(Saalah and Stanley, 2011). Indeed, before the reform, local government was merely
local administration without formal recognition as tier of government (Andrews,
2012). Very importantly too, the 1976
reform initiated, particularly, the financial and political autonomy of the
local government that was further strengthened by the civil service reform of
1988. As well, the provisions of the 1999 constitution as contained in section
7(1) and section 162 (paragraphs, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8) are intended to also guarantee the local government autonomy. The
provisions for the autonomy, as they were, are essentially and ostensibly aimed
at protecting the local government from unnecessary interference from other
tiers of government and to enable it play significant roles in the national
development process. However, findings from researches by scholars and
observations by practitioners, overtime, point to the fact that the autonomy of
the local government is becoming increasingly difficult to realize following
particularly, the propensity of the state governments to interfere in the
political/administrative and financial affairs of the local governments.
Over decades today, various
strategies and methods have been adopted by the successful government of both
developed and developing countries for the purpose of good governance and
effort at distributing the state resources and implement them at the local level.
The federal structure of Nigeria inhibit local government’s ability to mobilize
and use revenue to meet their obligation in sustainable manner (Adeyemo 2005).
He further acknowledges that, one of the recurrent obstacles of the third-tier
system in the country is the dwindling revenue generation as characterized by
annual deficits and insufficient funds for meaningful growth and viable project
development. The level of these relationships between and within the nation
federating units (i.e federal, State and local government) particularly as it
relate to revenue sharing has continually remained issues in the front burner
of the nation’s polity. The encroachment of local finance by the state government
has negatively affected the performance of local government in terms of its
constitutional responsibilities. The setting up of state and local government
joint account committee, local government service commission, ministry of local
government and chieftaincy affairs and other allied agencies at the state level
have made local government financial autonomy a mirage in Nigeria (Wada
&Aminu, 2014). Meanwhile, Finance
and prudent management are the bedrock of effective functioning of local
government administration. It is against this backdrop that Asiwaju (2010)
argues the local government requires finance to perform their statutory
functions; the ability of the local government to do this is largely dependent
on availability of fund, coupled with efficient management which constitutes
the required catalyst necessary for timely execution and completion of their
development projects. Awotokun & Adeyemo (1999), however expresses some
reservations that; in recent time, lack of funds has often been attributed as
the major handicap which had hindered effective and successful execution and
completion of many projects at the local government level. However, experience
has shown the contrary that low finance and allocation by the federal and delay
release for local government funds by the state government is the bane of local
governments’ inability to achieve substantial development in their jurisdiction
(Okoli, 2013).
The
above analysis in summary, gears towards lending credence to the fact that the
encroachment of local finance by the state government has negatively affected
the performance of local government in terms of its constitutional
responsibilities as noted earlier by (Wada & Aminu, 2014) thereby hindering
rural development in Nigeria local government system including Ebonyi local
government area of Ebonyi State.
The
quest for local government financial autonomy is aimed at reversing State
government encroachment into local government administration to enable local
government to carry out their saddled responsibility effectively and
efficiently. The level at which state government controls local council’s financial allocation
through appointed committees who are loyalist to the State Governors is a
challenge to local government administration towards rural development. The
local government reforms have been articulated in a bid to correct excessive
state encroachment, abuse of powers and the use of undemocratic leaders and
care-taker committee to run the local governments by the state governments in
Nigeria. Of all local government reforms deliberately executed to address these
anomalies, the 1976 local government reform which recognized local government
as a third tier, accords autonomous powers to the local councils and reduced
excessive politicking of state over local government in Nigeria’s political
system. Irrespective of the nature and extent of flaws that may characterize
local government financial autonomy in principle and practice in Nigeria, it
has, for fairly some time, become an important issue for considerations at the
National Assembly as recently done; it has been subjected to various critical discourses. The foregoing nevertheless, not much
intellectual efforts have been deployed in examining the local government
financial autonomy as a vehicle for redressing inordinate usurpation of power
and adequate finance of local governments by state governments at grassroots
politics in the country. Local government autonomy has to do with the area of
finance. The issue of State Local government Joint Account has been a thorny
issue in Local government State relationship in the Fourth Republic.
In view of this; the researcher formulated
the following questions to guide the study:
1. To
what extent has state interference in the management of local government
revenue constituted the bane to rural development in Ebonyi State?
2. To
what extent has poor financial management practice in the local government hinders
rural development in Ebonyi Local Government Area?
3. To
what extent will corruption free and local government autonomy enhance rural
development in Ebonyi Local Government Area?
The broad
objective of this study is to examine the implications of local government
autonomy on rural development in Ebonyi State particularly in Ebonyi Local
Government Area. The specific objectives of this study include:
1. To
ascertain the extent to which state interference in the management of local
government revenue constituted the bane to rural development in Ebonyi State.
2. To
examine the extent to which poor financial management practice in the local government
hinders rural development in Ebonyi Local Government Area.
3. To
suggest ways in which corruption free and local government autonomy will enhance
rural development in Ebonyi Local Government Area.
The following hypotheses
were formulated to guide the study:
HA1: State
interference in the management of local government revenue has constituted the
bane to rural development in Ebonyi State.
HA2: Poor
financial management practice in the local government hinders rural development
in Ebonyi Local Government Area.
HA3: Corruption
free and local government autonomy will enhance rural development in Ebonyi Local
Government Area.
This
study will be highly significance, given the enormous crucial role local
government autonomy plays in the local government administration towards
promoting rural development in Nigeria and Ebonyi State in particular. In view
of this, this study will be significant to the government in making adequate
policy efforts that will accommodate grants of autonomy to the local government
which will enhance effective and efficient performance through good governance.
Similarly,
this research will be of immense benefit to the public especially the local
government officials in understanding the objectives and role of local
government in promoting rural development. Consequently, it will expose the
need to be prudent in management because it is bedrock of effective functioning
of local government administration that enhances rural development.
Also,
this study will be immensely significant in the field of academics since it
will serve as a good reference material to future researchers given the dearth
of well researched materials on the implications of local government autonomy
on rural development in Ebonyi State.
Finally,
this study will be highly beneficial to the researcher in understanding the
reasons behind the poor rural development recorded in the local government
system in the country.
This
study covers the implication of local government autonomy on rural development
in Ebonyi State, Ebonyi local government area in focus. The study also covers
the concept of local government and autonomy, the impediment to local
government autonomy in Nigeria including Ebonyi state as well as the patterns
of state government interference in the local government autonomy and its
negative implications towards local government administration that hampered
rural development.
However,
several factors constrained this research one of which was the absence of well
researched materials on the implication of local government autonomy on rural
development in Ebonyi State. The researcher therefore had to use available
literature on journals, magazines, internet among others.
The
limited time for the research was also a constraint since her class work ran
together with the period for the research. However, effective time management
helped to ensure the success of this work.
Finally,
poor attitude of the respondents to the research also hindered the study though
the researcher had to mobilize research assistants to make the study a success.
This study adopted the fiscal federation
theory as the basis for this work. The basic foundations for the initial theory
of Fiscal Federalism were laid by Kenneth Arrow, Richard Musgrave and Paul
Sadweh Samuelson's two important papers (1954, 1955) on the theory of public
goods, Arrow's discourse (1970) on the roles of the public and private sectors
and Musgrave's book (1959) on public finance provided the framework for what
became accepted as the proper role of the state in the economy. Within is
framework, three roles were identified for the government sector. These were
the roles of government in correcting various forms of market failure, ensuring
an equitable distribution of income and seeking to maintain stability in the
macro-economy at full employment and stable prices.
The
theoretical framework in question was basically a Keynesian one which canvassed
for an activist role of the state in economic affairs. Thus the government was
expected to step in where the market mechanism failed due to various types of
public goods characteristics. Economics teaches us that public goods will be
underprovided if left to private market mechanisms since the private provider
would under invest in their provision because the benefits accruable to her or
him would be far lower than the total benefit to society. Governments and their
officials were seen as the custodians of public interest who would seek to
maximize social welfare based on their benevolence or the need to ensure
electoral success in democracies. Once we allow for a multi-level government
setting, this role of the state in maximizing social welfare then provides the
basic ingredients for the theory of fiscal federalism. Each tier of government
is then seen as seeking to maximize the social welfare of the citizens within
its jurisdiction. This multi-layered quest becomes very important where public
goods exist, the consumption of which is not national in character, but
localized. In such circumstances, local outputs targeted at local demands by
respective local jurisdictions clearly provide higher social welfare than
central provision. This principle, which Oats (1972) has formalized into the
"Decentralization Theorem" constitutes the basic foundation for what
may be referred to as the first generation theory of fiscal decentralization
(Oats, 2004). The theory focused on situations where different levels of
government provided efficient levels of outputs of public goods "for those
goods whose special patterns of benefits were encompassed by the geographical
scope of their jurisdictions" (Oats, 2004: 5). Such situation came to be
known as "perfect mapping" or "fiscal equivalence" (Olson
1969).
Nevertheless, it was also recognized that,
given the multiplicity of local public goods with varying geographical patterns
of consumption, there was hardly any level of government that could produce a
perfect mapping for all public goods. Thus, it was recognized that there would
be local public goods with inter-jurisdictional spill-overs. For example, a
road may confer public goods characteristics, the benefits of which are enjoyed
beyond the local jurisdiction. The local authority may then under-provide for
such a good. To avoid this, the theory then resorts to traditional Pigouvian
subsidies, requiring the central government to provide matching grants to the
lower level government so that it can internalize the full benefits.
Based on the following, the role of
government in maximizing social welfare through public goods provision came to
be assigned to the lower tiers of government. The other two roles of income
distribution and stabilization were, however, regarded as suitable for the
central government. To understand the rationale for the assignment of the
redistribution function to the central government, we need to examine what the
implications of assigning this responsibility to the lower tier would imply.
Given that citizens are freely mobile across local or regional jurisdictions, a
lower level jurisdiction that embarks on a programme of redistribution from the
rich to the poor would be faced with the out-migration of the rich to
non-redistributing jurisdictions and in-migration of the poor from such
jurisdictions to the redistributing one. If on the other hand, the powers to
redistribute were vested in the central government, a redistribution policy
would apply equally to citizens resident in all jurisdictions. There would
therefore be no induced migration. The central government is expected to ensure
equitable distribution of income, maintain macroeconomic stability and provide
public goods that are national in character. Decentralized levels of government
on the other hand are expected to concentrate on the provision of local public
goods with the central government providing targeted grants in cases where
there are jurisdictional spill-overs associated with local public goods.
The next step in the theoretical framework
was to determine the appropriate taxing framework. In addressing this tax
assignment problem, attention was paid to the need to avoid distortions
resulting from decentralized taxation of mobile tax bases. Gordon (1983)
emphasized that the extensive application of non benefit taxes on mobile
factors at decentralized levels of government could result in distortions in
the location of economic activity.
The relevance of the theory to this study
to note is the need for true fiscal federalism that will enhance all levels of
government including local government without interrupted in any form that will
hinder them from rendering their constitutional responsibilities. This is also in
the form of lump sum transfers from the central government to decentralized
governments. The arguments for equalization were mainly two. The first which is
on efficiency grounds saw equalization as a way of correcting for distorted
migration patterns. The second is to provide assistance to poorer regions or
jurisdictions. Equalization has been important in a number of federations. For
example, Canada has an elaborate equalization scheme built into her
inter-governmental fiscal arrangements. It should be pointed out however, that
recent literature emphasizes the importance of reliance on own revenues for
financing local budgets. A number of authors (Weingast, 1995; McKinon, 1997)
have drawn attention to the dangers of decentralized levels of government
relying too heavily on intergovernmental transfers for financing their budgets.
· Local Government:
Is a system of local administration instituted to maintain law and order,
provide limited range of social amenities and encourage co-operation and
participation of inhabitants towards improvement of their conditions of living.
· Autonomy:
In this context means a situation in which each government enjoys a separate
existence and independence from the control of the other governments.
·
Rural:
Is
those parts of the cities that are yet to develop. That is villages and
communities that lack necessary social amenities that are needed for standard
of living.
· Development:
Is the process in which someone or something grows or changes and become more
advanced.
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