ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a detailed "snapshot" of one Local Government (LG) organization in anglophone Africa. Organizational structure and personnel administration at the LG level have largely escaped critical analysis in spite of their importance for local policy making and performance. Under the initial post-reform LG system, each department head reported to a supervisory councillor as well as to the local government secretary. The effectiveness of a local government organization is dependent, in large measure, on its ability to attract and retain competent staff in adequate numbers. Local government staff throughout Bauchi State also experienced a shortage of educational and training opportunities. The chapter examines problems of organizational structure and staffing at the local government level in Nigeria. If the Nigerian experience provides an accurate gauge, exogenous and endogenous pressures are interacting in a complex and shifting way at the LG level in Africa.
