Local Administration In Nigeria

Robert O.F. Ola, Ola

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000448030
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1984. This work is an attempt to look into the structure of local government and the working of local administration in Nigeria in four broad eras. The periods considered are the pre-colonial, the colonial, the self- governing and the military era.

Chapter 1 Theoretical framework for local government performance

DOI: 10.4324/9781003209546-1

A book which attempts to examine some theoretical concepts as far as they affect local government, as a part of the social sciences, needs to begin by considering theories and the social sciences in brief. Such a consideration provides us with an appropriate perspective to the approach that is taken in this study.

If the social sciences (of which local government is a part) are genuine sciences, we must then try to find out what indeed science is. Science has been termed a 'sequence of dynamic activities intended to investigate some sequents of nature'.¹ Usually a scientist makes observations, designs his instruments, conducts experiments, collects data - whether from the field or the library — takes measurements and makes calculations and summations before ultimately drawing his conclusions. Such conclusions are based, as much as is humanly possible, on the available data. Science on the whole is the accumulation of knowledge which can be used to make predictions to a degree much more accurate than mere chance alone would make possible.

Science is often categorized into the empirical and non-empirical spheres.² The empirical sciences attempt to explore, describe, explain and ultimately predict occurrences. In the physical and biological sciences many predictions are made possible by experimentation. In the social sciences they are made possible by systematic observation, interviews, field surveys, examination of primary and secondary documents and similar methods. It is the dependence on these types of evidence that distinguish the empirical sciences from the non-empirical. The non-empirical include the disciplines of logic and pure mathematics, for example. In both, propositions can be and often are proved without any necessary reference to empirical factors.

Both the physical and biological sciences referred to above have long been used to the experimental technique. This technique has generated and in fact accelerated the development of grand laws in the physical and biological sciences. Such 'grand laws' have universal or very near universal application and are normally verifiable and can be replicated. With respect to the social sciences, though one can say with all confidence that the study of human society and of human activities and behaviour has gone on for about as long a time as the experiments in the natural sciences, yet it is common knowledge that no body of general laws has been established in these disciplines that could produce as satisfactory explanatory power or yield as much predicting capability as is found in the natural and physical sciences.

Despite this apparent setback to the social sciences, many social scientists hold that ultimately they will be able to evolve propositions that are universal or at least near universal in their application. Others, less optimistic, have abandoned the search for universal laws and prefer to seek propositions that hold true in most, though not in all, cases.³ Such, it is held, would have their utility and may in fact help in explaining the behaviour of the out of the ordinary cases which do not hold true. On the other hand, if and when such 'partial laws' are arrived at, they can form a basis for further research, a basis of further investigation and for arriving at the desired universal law.

The other view is probably less prevalent than that discussed above. It holds that in the social sciences the time is not yet ripe for grand laws or universal laws or even some of the strict partial laws. They hold that it is evident that in the social sciences there is nothing similar to the almost complete unanimity commonly found among scholars of the physical sciences as to what are matters of established facts, what are reasonably satisfactory explanations, exact measurements, etc.⁴ In the social sciences, greater opportunity exists for personal opinions and personal views and interpretations of findings. What becomes apparent from this, usually, is the growth often of conflicting schools of thought on various subjects or areas of study. To explain this, some have pointed at various problems within the social sciences — the near impossibility of controlled experiments, the culturally determined character of social phenomena, the ease with which some people can often modify their habits and social behaviour, and the facts that the social values to which students of social phenomena are committed at times colour their findings and often play without them realizing it, a part in their assessment of the evidence on which they base their conclusions.⁵

All these problems make it conceivable that the social sciences may not, in the foreseeable future, be able to make perfectly accurate predictions about human behaviour. Nevertheless, honest empirical and independent investigations are open to social scientists who can bear these possible limitations in mind. The result will be that it might be difficult (certainly far more difficult than in the natural and physical sciences) to arrive at grand laws and high-level universal laws about human behaviour or about systems of government (for example local government, which is our focus in this book). It will be possible, however, to arrive at some partial laws, applicable to most, or at least some cases, and which can form a basis of further work. We appear then to have taken a middle-of-the-road position. It is a position that does not agree with either of the two extremes. The social sciences cannot now, like the natural or physical sciences, indulge in grand laws or universal laws. Similarly the social sciences cannot now accept a position in which they are restricted to specific studies made only to obtain information about the particular area of study.

This is the position we take in this book. We have not yet arrived at a universal law with respect to local government performance. In the same way, we have not been satisfied with examining local government performance in a particular part of Nigeria and stopping there. Some 'partial law' or theory of local government has been evolved.

Theories and their values

How best then can we conceptualize theories? Theories are like maps. They help us get from one place we know well enough, to an unknown place.⁶ A theory by itself could be based on previous research findings. To this can be added the results of previous observations in the form of assumptions and general propositions. The resultant findings are usually readily verifiable, so that the evolved theory can be proved to be true or false or of some explanatory power and so of some practical utility in particular situations.

Not that all theories have to observe these rigours. It is not in all cases that they have to be based on previous works and observed results. Often, some simple generalizations which spring from observations can be tested and proved accurate, and may lead to valuable insights and predictions. Theories, then, whether of the latter type, or of the more rigorous former type, are guides to researchers in seeking for facts which may not ordinarily be readily apparent. Furthermore, by making earlier studies the basis for new research, a theory makes for continuity in the particular area. And quite apart from its ability to explain further what we have found in earlier works, a theory also projects a trend. In other words it can predict new tendencies and thus act as a signal in the development of the discipline. And, again, because it has a basis in the previous studies in the area, a theory transcends any primitive or unfounded conjecture and tends to follow that earlier established trend.

On the whole, one can agree with an earlier scholar who held the view that a theory 'synthesizes the results of observations, experiments and comparisons and expresses in a coordinated and coherent manner all that is known and implied by a group of phenomena'.⁷ In the broad area of local government a good number of respected scholars, British, West European and North American among others, have in some studies provided us with the results of experiments and observations. The studies provide a wealth of materials which, when compared with the observations of scholars from the developing nations, provide an excellent opportunity for attempting to formulate a co-ordinated and coherent 'partial theory'. Such a theory as mentioned above provides an insight into the discipline or area for which it is formulated. Inasmuch as it has done this, a 'partial theory' has achieved its major ideal.

Such partial theories as discussed above can be of immense importance to the social sciences. This is especially so with any area of political science. In this discipline we are yet far from having arrived at any scientifically exact grand laws. Hence, though it may be desirable that the discipline should continue to explore the possibilities in experimental and field techniques, as well as observational techniques in dealing with the particular, it must also continue to generalize from the particular and from the knowledge of the literature. This latter approach is the one that is adopted in this book. Knowledge of the literature is liberally employed to generalize and theorize from our particular study of local government in Nigeria.

The scientific method: a paradigm

Finally an attempt is made to establish and follow a scientific approach in the study. A respected scholar of scientific methodology has suggested that the greatest discovery in science, so far, has been the discovery of the scientific method.⁸ Probably a number of other scholars will regard his claim as exaggerated. This is not the material point here. Our concern indeed is to establish what the scientific method can be construed to be. Another respected scholar, also a student of scientific methodology, has suggested that the scientific method involves four steps.⁹ These are in brief:

1. observation;
2. generalization;
3. confirmation;
4. application.

The suggestion here is that the study of any phenomenon, be it in the inanimate natural world or in the realm of living things, or in the sphere of human affairs, has to begin with observation. This will include the collection and systematic arrangement of relevant facts and data. Man cannot and must not attempt to observe an entire area of a discipline at a time. His observation must always be limited to specific areas of interest. And since data, even in an area of interest, can be infinitely numerous and diverse, a scientific study has to select its facts in accordance with the needs of the problem under investigation. Further, the observation and ordering stage has to terminate at a reasonable time. Mere observation by itself, as another respected commentator has noted, entails no conclusions. Hence, an observer has to realize that he cannot possibly observe all the facts. After a reasonable time, he has to satisfy himself that the observed facts are a fair enough sample. He would then proceed to the next step, which consists in the formulation of a generalization that accounts for the observed phenomena. The generalization that a researcher comes up with must be one about which there is both some doubt and, paradoxically enough, some inclination to belief. The fact remains that where no doubt exists as to the truth of the generalization, there can be no willingness to submit it to the test of verification. On the other hand, if there is no inclination whatsoever to believe the generalization, then there is no disposition to check its accuracy or look into the degree of truth it contains.

Having arrived at a generalization or a body of generalization the stage then opens for the third step, that of confirmation (and possibly rejection). If confirmed, then it becomes a tool that can be applied in the discipline to predict or explain certain behaviour, actions or occurrences. Thus, apart from the four steps summarized above, the scientific method must also meet certain requirements. These are that:

1. it must explain adequately the observed facts;
2. it must contain testable or verifiable generalizations;
3. it must in the end be able to predict or explain patterns of occurrences or regular phenomena.¹⁰

In this book, our observations, as mentioned earlier, are based on an examination of the theoretical literature and examination of Nigeria's local government in three broad eras of the history of local government both in the Southern provinces and in Northern Nigeria. The generalizations are summed up in the theory of local government performance which is then tested and applied at various stages of local government development in Nigeria.

A theory of local government

An author can get his inspiration from several sources. He might get it from a personal ambition and a strong desire to express his point of view on a problem. He might get it from a hint or suggestion given by another friend or colleague, or it might come spontaneously as some ideas race through his mind or as he races through the pages of some journals, newspapers or textbooks. In the present case, the author felt a strong sense of challenge on reading and viewing some of the pronouncements of some scholars about local government. A British scholar of local government had written expressly that 'there is no theory of local government', and that there is no normative general theory from which we can devise testable hypotheses about what it is.'¹¹ Another American scholar appeared to have agreed with this view. He suggested: 'No obstacle to analysis would arise were there universally accepted functions and purposes of modern democratic local government, but of course, there are none.'¹² This was a qualified statement compared with the former, for whose author, W. J. M. Mackenzie, what does not exist as yet is a universally accepted set of functions and purposes. Perhaps then some partially or widely accepted, regionally or locally applicable functions and purposes can be found and further examined.

These authors however, were not alone. Another student of local government, W. H. Wickwar, has obs...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents Page
• Preface Page
• 1 Theoretical framework for local government performance
• 2 The era of indirect rule and the native authority system
• 3 Nigerian political elites and grassroots politics
• 4 The political elites and later reform efforts
• 5 Military elites and local government
• 6 The Great Reform Decree of 1976
• 7 Transplanting institutions into local governments
• 8 Whither now local government?
• 9 Epilogue: New political realities
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index