THE IMPACT OF INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN NIGERIA. (A STUDY OF LAGOS ISLAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, LAGOS STATE)
ABSTRACT
The study examined the impact of inter-governmental relations in local governments in Nigeria. More specifically, the study sought to assess the inter-governmental relationship and Local Government Administration in Nigeria.Population was drew from Lagos Island Local Government Headquarters, which involved all the departments of the Local Government. Yaro Yamane formula was used to determine the sample size, which consist of 229 staff, while the simple statistical method of frequencies and percentage were applied. The data used for this study were collected through two main sources, namely; Primary and Secondary sources of data, 229 respondents duly participated in the survey and a well- developed questionnaire was designed to elicit information from the respondents. Result from the study indicated that the impact inter-governmental relations have on local Government is mostly negative thereby affecting the process of local government affairs. Also the local government due to the power given to it through the constitution, has its own autonomy share of resource distribution which helps it develop rapidly. Base on this, the study advised that all the levels of government should be part and parcel of policy formulation relating to the issues at hand, furthermore considering the fact that they are the third tier of government, the government should distribute resources to them in order to help them develop and be independently in their own, and lastly Resources sharing must address the necessity for rapid development at the grassroots levels.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Inter-governmental relations refer to the structures and processes which exist in a decentralized system of government for the coordination of the activities of the various levels of government as they perform their constitutionally-assigned roles inter-governmental relations encompasses all the permutations and combinations of relations among the units of government in a federal system, it comprises the activities and attitudes of persons occupying positions in all the units of government under consideration: Federal, State, Local as well as in the judicial, legislative or executive branches of government as they relate with each other Inter-governmental relations includes conceited and regularized actions of officials as well as the one-time occasional occurrences such as new statutes and landmark court decisions in their interrelationship. In fact, it is inter-government relations, which makes a federal entity a system of government. Otherwise, the federation becomes just a collection of independent entities. As a result of the relationship between levels of government in from the principle of division of powers in such way that no level of government is subordinate to the other on matters constitutionally allocated to it, but also from a realistic conception of federalism as a total system of imperfectly shared responsibility.
