Governance in Nigeria: Assessing the effects of the state joint local government account

Abstract

Nigeria is one of the few countries in Africa that adopted a federal system of government, a system that envisages autonomy for every sector of its authorities and effective governance depends on an appropriate division of responsibilities and resources between federal, state and local authorities supported by a sufficient institutional capacity at each of these levels to carry out its assigned functions.Unfortunately, to suit their political agenda and interests, state governments have maintained a great level of domination and control over Local Governments allocations through State Joint Local Government Account.Though it is constitutional but in practice the application of State Joint Local Government Account is far from the constitutional provisions and at the same time undermines the principles of good governance like efficiency, accountability, transparency, participation and accessibility.To ensure good governance at the grassroots level full financial autonomy must be accorded to local governments through scrapping of State Joint Local Government Account