Legitimacy Crisis and Elite Conspiracy in Local Government Administration in Nigeria

Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, faces a major crisis in its federal structure and democratic experience. Despite the allusion to democratic governance of the country, the political class, especially elected state governors, and the bureaucratic elite have turned autocratic, refusing to obey the Constitution which demands compulsory elections into the local government administration, siphoning the statutory allocation to the councils from the Federation Account, generating instability in the polity, and arresting the socioeconomic development at the grassroots. This paper puts in perspective the legitimacy crisis and elite conspiracy in the local government council administration, which has spread rural poverty and discontentment among the citizenry, and recommends concrete steps to arrest the calamitous drift. Keywords: Nigeria, constitution, democracy, development, elite, legitimacy, local government LOCA