Challenges of Local Government Administration in Edo State of Ngieria

This paper examined the fundamental problems that envelope local government administration in Edo State, and discovered that the challenges are constitutional issues. It also identified problems of graft, poor revenue generation by local authorities, and poor revenue allocation cum fiscal transfer to local governments. Besides, the paper identified erosion of fiscal autonomy and failure of local governments to be responsible for their inability to impact positively on the citizenry. Primarily, information was sourced through the interviews of purposively selected Local Government Officials of Edo State origin, while secondary information was collected through the instrumentality of official publications, records of political associations; relevant books, journals as well as Edo State Local Government Law (2000) and the Federal Republic of Nigeria Constitution of 1999. To stimulate harmonious Inter Governmental Relation (IGR), the Presidency should set up Advisory Commission on Inter governmental relations (ACIR) to be located at the Presidency with any arm of it in the State and Local Government levels, and there should be the complete re-orientation and selfpurgation of the rank and file of Local Government functionaries in order to promote high degree of transparency, probity, responsiveness and accountability. Also, some degree of autonomy in operations and resources for local governments should be guaranteed. It is expedient to amend the 1999 constitution to remove the preposterous super-ordinate/subordinate pattern of relationship between state and Local Governments. We strongly feel that if the forgoing ugly situation is pragmatically arrested, local government administration will enhance meaningful national development in NigeriaLWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 5 2008: pp. 215-22