Promoting and Sustaining Good Governance at the Local Government Level in Benue State of Nigeria

Abstract

This paper has focused on the areas of seemingly insurmountable 
problems facing good governance at the Local government level and the way out. These include financing, Staffing, central Local government relations, Politics and Political Leadership. The main concern of the paper is about the democratization of governance in Nigeria, at large and Local government in particular. This explains the quest for greater autonomy in the workings of the Local government system. This involves, especially, changing the provisions in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria that pertain to Local Governments, in order to make them a third tier of government. However, this paper has also emphasized the need to exercise some level of control and accountability over the workings of the Local Government System. For Local Governments are not Sovereign entities from states and the Federal Government. Given the wide spread corruption and mismanagement at the local government level, it behoves on the state governments to strengthen the office of the Auditor-General of Local Government and the Local Government Service Commission which should be a part of the 1999 Constitution. This paper emphasizes that the balancing of autonomy of local governments with control by the state governments is the solution of the challenges of promoting and sustaining good governance at the local government level in Nigeria.