Caretaker Committee and Performance of Local Government Council in Anambra State

Abstract

The study focused on the caretaker committee and performance of local Government Council in Nigeria: A study of Anambra State 2008 - 2013. In Nigeria federal structure, the three levels of government have legislative responsibility for various services and functions. The fourth schedule of the constitution outlines the functions and responsibilities of local government. The objective of the study is to: determine if the imposition of the caretaker committee system is a constitutional provision of the local government system in Nigeria especially Anambra State; to determine if the adoption of the caretaker committee by the state government affected the capacity of local government to perform its functions. The theoretical framework adopted focused on structural functional theory propounded by Gabriel Almond and J.S. Coleman in 1960. The study adopted descriptive research design and relied heavily on both primary and secondary data. Questionnaire was the major instrument for data collection and data were analyzed by the use of mean. Based on the data analysis, the following findings were made: the imposition of the caretaker committee system by state government to local governments is unconstitutional, the adoption of the caretaker committee by state government endangered the local government system capacity to perform its constitutional function. The study recommended amongst others that the use of or appointment of local government caretaker committee should be condemned, caretaker committee should be made to spend only three months to allow for a constitutionally elected local government executive.

Keywords: Local Government, Caretaker, Committee, Grassroots, Performance.