Crime in governance, issues and processes: An appraisal of local government resources management

Abstract

This paper is an attempt at giving an appraisal of local government resources management in Nigeria. This is particularly necessary at this time where the perception and expectations of aspirants to office of the chairman of council have had to be so highly blurred that service delivery is replaced by service recipient. Such a replacement manifest undoubtedly in the varied ways of extortion, mismanagement, and maladministration. It is in fact not an understatement to say that the local government system, commonly referred to as grass-roots government, has paradoxically alienated the grass-roots, become self-served (and sometimes served a privilege few), and diametrically opposed and/or antithetical to the very philosophy for which the local government system was established. It is the view of this paper that though crime in governance is a cankerworm that has wrecked a devastating blow to management of the resources, not only in the local government system but also at states and the federal government, it is propelled and fanned by institutional failure and nurtured by the state of development of the instant society. It is the fervent believe of this paper that any effort at institutionalizing good governance and accountable management of local government resources must take a multivariate and/or multidimensional posture.