ABSTRACT
In Nigeria, efforts of governmental programmes at reducing the incidence of poverty have not yielded much result. Local government as an institution in Nigeria has received much attention in terms of grandiose reforms. The 1976 Local Government Reforms are often regarded as a significant landmark in the effort at repositioning local government in Nigeria for better performance. This chapter examines the role of local government in the drive for grassroots development, where underdevelopment indicators of poverty, a high mortality rate, diseases and infrastructural decay are visible. While it is evident that local government has a significant transformative role at the grassroots, its performance is unsatisfactory. This results from certain hindering factors of undemocratic culture of local government, overbearing influence of state governments, corruption and dearth of competent personnel, among others. For local government to fulfil the manifest destiny of grassroots development, these hindering factors must be confronted with the required patriotic zeal.
