INTERROGATING THE NEXUS BETWEEN DECENTRALIZATION BY DEVOLUTION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LOCAL POLITICAL LEADERS IN NIGERIA: ENVISIONING BEYOND THE PRESENT

Abstract

This paper argues that the effectiveness of Nigeria’s local political leadership depends not simply by the formal existence of constitutional decentralization by devolution stipulations, but by the extent to which local autonomy is actually realized in practice. Hence, it interrogates how Nigeria’s local autonomy undercurrents impact the effectiveness of local political leaders. Its scope covers the Fourth Republic of Nigeria, which commenced in 1999 and continues to the present, and it makes recommendations beyond the present. The paper scrutinizes the spirit behind existing decentralization by devolution mechanisms and the actual outcomes that the state governments enable to entrench operative and effectual local autonomy, viz. autonomous local political leaders in Nigeria. It noticed that such a prospect is thwarted by mostly the lack of constitutionalism in the conducts of the state-based political institutions. Accordingly, it inadvertently analyses the realpolitik of state-local intergovernmental relations in Nigeria. Based on the textual-interpretative analytical method, it notes that the dominant belief in works of literature on the realpolitik of the state-based institutions with their local governments since 1999 have been counterproductive and reflective of unitary tenets. These tendencies have not made the effectiveness of local political leaders to materialize because they do not support local autonomy to thrive. Consequently, the relationship of state-based governmental institutions with the local governments does not help to entrench effective implementation of decentralization by devolution tenets. Accordingly, the paper recommends constitutional amendment policy measures that it believes will help facilitate effective autonomous local political leaders to reign beyond the present.