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CORRUPTION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA:

Introduction
Nigeria is rich in natural and human resources, with a population of over 150 million people; the most populous country in Africa. At the time of her political
Independence, on 1st October 1960, Nigeria excelled in production of agricultural produce such as groundnut, palm oil, cocoa, cotton, beans, timber and hides and skins. Then, during the oil boom period of the seventies Nigeria made headlines with her oil wealth, as a country richly endowed with oil and natural gas resources capable of financing a number of important projects to meet basic consumption and development needs (Salisu, 200:2). With per capital income of around $1,100 during the late 1970’s Nigeria was regarded as the fastest growing country in Sub-Sahara Africa (Salisu, Ibid). Yet it remains predominantly underdeveloped due to the scourge of corruption that has corroded it. Corruption denies the ordinary citizen the basic means of livelihood, it worsen unemployment and erodes our image as a nation and as individual (Danjuma Goje 2010:1). It has undermined Nigeria’s economic growth and development potential, with a per capital income of $340, Nigeria now ranks amongst the least developed countries in the World Bank League table (Salusi, op.cit). Nigeria’s higher education system once regarded as the best in Sub-Sahara Africa is in deep crisis. Health services are woefully inadequate, graduate unemployment is rising and so too is crime rate (Salisu, Ibid).
This culture of corruption which is rampant at national level constitutes a threatening force to development at grassroots level. It has been a significant factor leading to the general failure of local government as well as an excuse for suspending representative institution (Humes and Ola, N.D:104).
Corrupt practices have been deleterious not only because they divert funds from public purposes to private purses but also they undermine the vitality of local government (Ibid).
This paper therefore, examines the crisis of corruption in Nigerian local government administration. It is divided into five parts viz: the introduction, concept of corruption, concept of local government, corruption in Nigerian local government system: the causes, effects and manifestation and finally the conclusion, which is the way forward.

Conceptualization of Terms
Within the disciplinary parameters of social science, the issue of definition of concepts has not been problem free. This has been largely due to the eclectic nature and paradigmatic dispositions of respective disciplines within the field (Akindele et al, 1997:1). Given this, there is a need for caution on the part of any analyst in giving precise meaning to concepts in the social sciences, particularly when such meanings could not have been unconnected with the perspective, ideological persuasion or the unit of analysis of such analyst (Akindele et al, Ibid).
Therefore, for more classification and their usage in this work it is appropriate to start the conceptual framework with the term corruption.

Concept of Corruption
As a result of the complexity of corruption, its effects on the systemic existence of its victims as does its prevalence through the efforts of its perpetuators, its definition has continued to be shrouded by value preference and differences (Akindele and Adeyemi, 2011:8). This has to some extent complicated the attainment of a definitional uniformity on the concept within the academia and practicing world of administration.
Given this, the elusiveness of the definition of corruption (depending on the definer and perspective) within the parameter of intellectual discourse on
Nigerian State and beyond, was eloquently evoked by Gboyega quoted in Olasupo (2009:188) as thus:
Corruption involves the giving and taking of bribe, or illegal acquisition of wealth using the resources, of a public office including the exercise of discretion. In this regard, it is those who have business to do with government who are compelled somehow to provide inducement to public officials to make them do what they had to do or grant undeserved favour. It is therefore defined as official taking advantage of their offices to acquire wealth or other personal benefit.
McMullan (1969) defined corruption in the following way:
A public official is corrupt if he accepts money or money’s worth for doing something that he is under a duty to do anyway, that he is under a duty not to do or exercise a legitimate discretion for improper reasons. Otite (1986:12) in his own explanation sees corruption as: Perversion of integrity or state of affair through bribery, favour or moral depravity. It involves the injection of additional but improper transaction aimed at changing the normal course of events and altering judgments and positions of trust. It consists in doers and receivers’ use of informal, extra-legal or illegal act to facilitate matter.
Nwabueze (2002:128) in his own contribution adopted a sociological approach to the definition of corruption. He conceptualized corruption in the following way: Corruptions, according to him take several forms on one hand, if a public officer embezzles public funds kept in his trust that is corruption. In the same view, if he does unauthorized spending or exceeds approved limits for dubious ends, this is corruption. If he, in deviance of the rules, allocates government land to himself, his wife, his child or friends or otherwise appropriates his position to his or other person’s unfair advantage it is corruption. If he over values a contract so that he could earn a kick-back, this is corruption (Nwabueze, Ibid).
A careful examination of the above definition and explanation demonstrate that corruption in Nigeria takes two terms namely political and economic.
Political corruption is the use of legislative powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain (http://en.wikipedia.org.). From the political point of view, the perpetrators are political office holders, bureaucrats, public servants, the press and the general public. This has stigmatized the image of the government, weakened its credibility and reduced the effectiveness of the development programmes and policies; and also to a great extent, weakened the economy of the nation (see Aransi, 2008:63).
Economic corruption ravaging the Nigeria economy could be noticed in financial institutions such as banks, the insurance companies and the stock brokers (Aransi, ibid).
Corruption is a world- wide phenomenon which has been with societies throughout the history. It has caused political and economic instability in societies and depending on the scale, it has led to social conflict and violence, as competing groups vie for state power which is the source of distribution of resources and other amenities in society (Odunuga 2000:55).
The effect of corruption is that it undermines economic performance. Despite the availability and expenditure in colossal amounts of foreign exchange derived mainly from its oil and gas resources, economic growth has been weak and the incidence of poverty has increased.

Concept of Local Government
The United Nations Office for Public Administration quoted in Ola and Tonwe (2009:4) defines local government as thus:
A political subdivision of a nation or (in a federal system) state, which is constituted by law and has substantial control of local affairs, including the powers to impose taxes or to exact labour for prescribed purposes. The governing body of such as entity is elected or otherwise locally selected.
Along this dimension, the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences cited
Adeyemo (2010:7) defines it as:
A political subdivision of a Nation or Regional Government which performs functions which in nearly all cases receives its legal power from national or regional government but possesses some degree of discretion on the making of decisions and which normally has some taxing power.
The Guidelines for Local Government Reform of (1976:1) defines local government as:
Government at the local level exercise through representative council established by law to exercise specific powers within defined area. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and institutional and financial powers to initiate and direct the provision of services and determine activities of state and federal; government in their areas, and the ensure, through devolution of functions to these councils and through the active participation of the people and their traditional institutions, that local initiative and response to local needs and conditions are maximized. Local government is a multi-dimensional concept. The dimensions are

1. Social Dimension
From the social dimension, local government is basically a social institution. It is an organized social entity based on the feeling of oneness. This emanates from the fact that man is a social animal and must of necessity interact with other people (Ola and Tonwe, 2009: 4-5). Local government provides a platform for people in a locality to express and fulfill their human urge to interact and in the process of interaction, the feeling of convergence bring to the fore the commonality of basic needs of the people in the neighborhood of food, shelter, clothing, water etc.
2. Economic Dimension
Local government is basically an economic institution with a foremost role to play in promoting the economic well-being of the people of the locality.
The economic dimension of the concept of local government relates to its economic viability. Thus revenue generation becomes a primary function of local government. A local government that is not economically viable cannot do much to improve the economic conditions of the people in the locality (Ola and Tonwe, Ibid).
3. Geographic Dimension
Local government also has a geographical dimension. From the perspective of a specific and defined territorial jurisdiction over a particular human habitation, the local government may be conceptualized in geographic terms. The geography of local government which includes physical, demographic and economic features has its impact on its policies, administration and law.
The geographical dimension of local government stems from the fact that among the inhabitants of a given area, there is a consciousness that they are differentiated from the inhabitants of other areas in the same country.
This is what is called the concept of neighborhood which makes the inhabitants of an area automatically aware of the interests which infringe upon them more directly than upon others (Ola and Tonwe, Ibid).
4 Legal Dimension
Local government is a legal institution in the sense that it is established by law of a competent and higher authority. This makes local government a miniature body-politic and a corporate body. In its former capacity, it is the agent of state and, as such, represents public interest. In that capacity, it exercises a part of the power of the state legally delegated to it within specified geographical boundaries (Ola and Tonwe, Ibid).
5. Political Dimension
Local government is seen as a political institution. It is basically, a political mechanism for governance at the grass root.
6. Administrative Dimension
Local government has an administrative dimension. It has its local bureaucracy like other higher levels of government that coordinate the activities and the operation of day- to- day running of the system.
On the whole, it may be said that local government is basically an organized social entity based on the feeling of oneness. In political terms it is concerned with the governance of a specific local area, constituting a political sub-division of a nation, state or other major political units.
In performance of its functions it acts as the agent of the state. In other words, local government is an integrant of the political mechanism for governance in a country. As body corporate and juristic person, it represents a legal concept.
CORRUPTION IN NIGERIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION.
According to Olusegun Obasanjo in Akanbi (2005:126) :
Corruption, the greatest bane of our society today, will be tackled head on … No society can achieve anything near its full potential if it allows corruption to become the full blown cancer it has become.
The above statement illustrates the state of pervasion, rot or decay within the Nigerian state arising from widespread of corruption. Along this line Familomi
(2005:51) depicted thus:
Becoming corrupt in Nigeria is almost unavoidable as morality is lax, because to survive people have to make money.
One of the fundamental problems of contemporary Nigeria is corruption. It has thrived, progressed and flourished. Corruption has been institutionalized to the point of accepting it as part of our system. Albeit corruption is ubiquitous, it is found all over the world, but the degree of its manifestation varies from system to system (Lawal and Oladunjoye, 2010: 232).
Corruption is the greatest bane of local government administration in Nigeria. At the grassroots level, corruption has been accommodated, entertained, and celebrated within the system. In the local government setting corruption is misnomerly labeled and euphemistically referred to as “Egunje” (a slogan which means “illegal offer” in Nigeria) (Lawal and Oladunjoye, op.cit: 232).
Corruption has been described as a major cause of comatose state of local government administration in Nigeria, and a major hindrance to good government (Onwuemenyi, 2008). It has been identified as one of the problems confronting effective local government administration in Nigeria, also nonadherence to provisions of the financial memorandum (FM), conspicuous consumption of the part of the local officials, lifestyles that are not commensurate with official sources of income, imposition of leaders on the local government through corrupted political process and low wages of local government officials (Ali, 2008).
Corruption has remained an issue militating against local governments’ performance. Oviasuyi, et al (2010) in this regard observed that “as in all levels of government in Nigeria, corruption is predominately widespread, undiluted an unambiguous in the local government”. It is a statement of fact that in the local government system, corruption has become all pervading, unabashed, uncontrolled and persistent. This perhaps explains the inefficiency and ineffectiveness in local government administration in Nigeria. The system has virtually become superfluous and redundant (Oviasuyi, et al, Ibid). Some of the areas where corruption thrives in local government to include the following:
a. Inflation of prices of bought items;
b. Over estimation of cost of projects;
c. The ghost worker syndrome;
d. Award of contracts and subsequent abandonment ; and
e. Outright payment of huge sums of money to political godfathers
(Oviasuyi, et al (ibid).
However, the effect of corruption on the polity is serious and its effects are as follows:
Firstly, destruction of democratic values, corruption tends to destroy democratic ethos in the local government system. All the values of democracy, such as responsiveness, accountability, participation and human development, are either subdued or neglected where corruption thrives.
Secondly, development is hindered in a regime of corruption. Rather than utilizing the available resources for the upliftment and development of the council, they are diverted to private use.
Thirdly, rule of law is also subverted and replaced by muscle power. In order to successfully steal government resources, the officials in the local government system undermine the rules and regulations that guide their activities and ensure that whatever is stolen by them cannot be traced or tracked within their tenure in office. This has serious implication for service delivery as developmental projects may be abandoned without any necessary action. Also, in this ugly capacity, contracts are bound to be inflated, bribes and kickbacks are bound to be taken and contracts are also bound to be awarded to non-existent companies (i.e. companies that exist on paper alone).
Finally, manpower development and capacity building becomes sluggish and discouraged in the arena of corruption. The Chief Executive of the council is not thinking about the need to train and re-train the staffers, but how to steal the money meant for manpower development and capacity building into his own pocket for selfish purpose.

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