EFFECT OF VITAMINS C AND E INTAKE ON BLOOD ... - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 2, Number 1 (2006)
governments, especially the taking over of some of the responsibilities of states and local
governments by the federal government. Examples here include police, prison, judiciary,
education, forestry, etc taken over; use of indirect methods and other processes which
were less than democratic; reduced functional roles of traditional rulers, and such others.
Concretely, the development of local government system was constrained by military
authoritarian, undemocratic and centralising tendencies (CASS, 2003:21).
The creation of 12 states in 1967 witnessed another phase of local government
reforms. Each region instituted its local government system and this leading to diverse
rather than uniform local government administrative system among the states/regions
that made up Nigeria then. Local administration then was in the context of the dictates
of their local circumstance(s). While the eastern and mid-western state governments
took over the running of local political institutions, the west adopted a North American
model of local administrative system and in most of the Northern States in existence was
the system of popular representation with weakened traditional leadership. In addition,
local governments were being treated essentially as agents of regional and central
government. That is, the arrangement did not encourage local autonomy.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the importance of local government in the
Nigerian political terrain has been renewed since the 1976 reform of local government
system. The reform has been very embracing. Apart from the fact that the reform
recognized the tier of government as a distinct level of government with defined
boundaries, it clearly stated functions and provisions for ensuring adequate human and
financial resources and at the same time imposed a nation-wide uniform within practical
limits. That is, local government units were collectively regarded as a separate arm of
government with “constitutional status, power and financial standing” irrespective of the
fact that the state governments were to ensure their existence and provide for their
structure, composition, finance and functions (Bello-Imam and Uga, 2004:453) and
subsequently enshrined in the 1979, 1989 and 1999 constitutions of the federal republic
of Nigeria.
To date, there have been series of major and far-reaching structural and
organizational changes since that 1976, the existence of the main features of the 1976
reform till today is not in doubt. Among these changes are the abolition of the state
ministries of local government in 1988 to enhance the autonomy of local government;
the introduction of direct disbursement of statutory allocations to local governments; the
increase of allocation formula from 10% to 15% in 1990 and later mid-1992 increased to
20%; transfer of Primary Health Care (PHC) programme to local governments in 1990;
transfer of primary school administration in 1991; extension of presidential system to
local government (to ensure transparency and accountability) as recommended by Civil
Service Reorganisation of 1988; consistent increase in the number of local governments
from 299 in 1976 to 589 in 1991 and 774 in 1996 and till date; and a host of others (see
Olowu, et al; 1991:20; Ekpo, 1994; Bello-Imam and Uga, ibid:461-462).
The declining furtunes of local governments in nigeria
Olowu, et. al. (1991:17) emphatically expressed the view that local governments all over
the world exist to achieve certain societal values and which must have influenced the
authors of the Nigerian local government reform, especially that of 1976. The principal
aim of local government as spelt out by the reform guideline are to:
(i) provide appropriate services and development activities progressive to local
wishes and initiatives by devolving or delegating them to local representative
bodies;
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