ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CONFRONTING DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AT GRASS ROOTS IN NIGERIA

Local Government in Nigeria basically was established to fast track the level of grass roots development, be it human or economic development. This paper is critically designed to examine the role of local government in confronting development challenges at the grass root developmentin Nigeria and to also proffer solutions in solving those confronting problems bedeviling the survival and development of local government in Nigeria. Secondary data which encompasses scholarly articles, published researches, documented guidelines on local government administration, text books on the subject matter, constitution of federal republic of Nigeria, etcwere employed in getting relevant information, while content analysis was used to make analysis in finding out the significant challenges confronting the local government in Nigeria as well as forwarding ways out. The paper revealed that the vacuum of the 1999 constitution of the federalrepublic of Nigeria about the autonomy of local government as third tier of government, internally weak revenue base, inadequate statutory allocation, corruption, poor and weak political leadership, lack of political legitimacy, unqualified personnel with improper condition of service, among others were the significant challenges confronting grass roots development in Nigeria. The paper finally recommended that there should be constitutional amendment to ensure autonomy of local government, responsive governance, stemming of corruption and embezzlement, accountability and transparency in local government, participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in economic planning and development at grass roots level, adequate financial allocation, capacity building on human resources, employment of qualified staff, improved condition ofservice, political and financial autonomy, among others.