Local Government Administration and Communal Clashes in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper notes that the increasing communal clashes in local areas are not caused by prevailing disputes such as land disputes, ethnic intolerance, cultural or religious extremism but persistent anomalies, inconsistencies in service delivery performance that have been continued over the years. It is quite an irony that in an era of democratic governance where networks, partnerships and participation of citizens are being advanced and practiced, and where citizens are seen as important stakeholders in governance, local communities are now engaging themselves, not government, in battles that leave chilly marks in political history. The problem may have nothing to do with the dangerous weapons used by electorates against one another but how policies over the years have let the majority of the general populace down. This paper is a product of a current research on community perception in measuring local government service delivery performance in Nigeria as a developing country. The aim of this paper is to contribute to research on problems of community underdevelopment and unrest in democratic Nigeria.

 Keywords: Local government, accountability, performance measurement, governance, networking