TAXATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0Â Â Development of Local Government in NigeriaÂ
The evolution of local government in Nigeria has under gone a lot of changes. These are all geared towards making the local government a system that could serve the purposes for which they are created, before the emergence of the British Colonial/ Administration; various communities in Nigeria were governed through the instrumentality of their traditional political Institutions. These institutions were anchored on the people’s habits of thought, prestige and custom which are adapted to meet the new conditions for general development of their areas.
Local authorities were empowered to charge and collect developmental rates based on a certain percentage of the income of the rate payers. The council enjoyed the social autonomy of providing certain social services to the community, for instance the local government was vested with the responsibility of healthcare services delivery with the transfer of primary healthcare delivery system.
In the 1950s, election was introduced according to the British model in the western and eastern parts of the country with some measure of autonomy in financial, general administration and in personnel which gave rise to tide of progress, growth and development experienced in the local government.
Prior to this period, the British introduced native courts chaired by Chiefs, native treasuries where taxes collected from people were paid in for use by the local government. Native authorities were created with traditional rulers at the head of each authority. The traditional rulers continued to dominate local government’s administration until the military took over power. In 1966, from then the powers of the traditional rulers, especially in the northern region, reduced gradually. The newly created states in the Northern region increased popular participation in local government administration. Larger local authorities were broken to smaller ones and native authorities were changed to local governments.
The local government reform of 1976 provided the guidelines for local governments in Nigeria. The reform created large-sized local government areas throughout the federation based on a certain minimum population requirements, these results in uniform local government areas. The federal government for the first time was involved in the funding of local governments. The local government gets statutory percentages share of Federation accounts and state revenue. The local government was made a third tier of government, which means the local government has its own powers. There were about 301 local government councils as at 1976.
In 1986, the Babangida Administration made local government an effective third tier of federal system, introduced reforms aimed at enhancing their autonomy and strengthening their administrative framework. All elected councilors now constitute legislative arm of the local government which the executive arm consists of the chairman and vice-chairman and supervisory councils.
The local government witnessed several reforms between 1991 to 1992. The reforms snows a fundamental implications for local government administration, especially in regard to the reforms to the local government service. 589 local government areas were in existence as of 1991 local government reforms and there was establishment of the executive chairmanship of local government with functions firmly entrenched in schedule four of the constitution.
The federal government established the local government service commission aimed at preserving the independence of the local government staff. The federal government increased the local government share of the federation accounts to twenty percent. This increase in revenue base gave local governments high degree of confidence and power to equip them for the challenging role, facing them.
According to 1999 constitution of Nigeria, not only recognizes, but also guarantees the existence of a more powerful and independent local government areas section 162 of the 1999 constitution guarantees the right of the local government to receive statutory allocation of the revenue from both the federation account and state resource. The fourth, schedule of the same constitution spells out the functions of the local government.
The federal government increased the local government share of the federation accounts to twenty-five percent. In the present local government administration, there are about 774 local government areas in Nigeria with the rights and power of providing certain social services to the communities, such social services like provision of healthcare centers, electrification, provision of pipe bore water and accessible roads etc.
