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

European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 2, Number 1 (2006)
(ii) facilitate democratic self-governance close to the local levels of our society and
encourage initiative and leadership potential;
(iii) mobilise human and material resources through the involvement of members of
the public in local area development;
(iv) provide a two-way channel of communication between local committees and
government (both state and federal); and
(v) spell out specific constitutional functions and responsibilities for planning of
local governments (Olaniyi, 1999:273).
(vi) The paradox now is that as important as the local government system is,
especially in the Nigerian context, it has failed to function (appropriately) by not
providing and satisfying the basic needs of the grassroots. This disturbing trend
informed the President Obasanjo’s realisation of the need to review the structure
of local government system in Nigeria in June 2003. What followed was the
constitution of a high power eleven-man Presidential Technical Committee on
local government reform under the chairmanship of Alhaji Umaru Ndayako (the
Late Etsu of Nupe). The mandate of the committee was to:
(vii) examine the problem of inefficiency and high cost of governance with a view to
reducing costs and wastages;
(viii) review the performance of local governments within the last four years and
consider the desirability or otherwise of retaining the local government on the
third tier of government and in that regard to consider, among other options, the
adoption of a modified version of the pre-1976 local government;
(ix) examine the high cost of electioneering campaign in the country; and
(x) consider any matter, which in the opinion of technical committee, are germane to
the goal of efficient structure of governance in Nigeria.
The report of the committee was turned in within the stipulated time frame. It is
unfortunate to note that the report is on the shelve gathering dust like such other earlier
reports.
However, the reason for non-performance or gross under performance of the local
government system in Nigeria has been described by scholars to be multi-dimensional.
Adedeji (1970) for example blames this on lack of mission or lack of comprehensive
functional role, lack of proper structure, low quality of staff, and low funding. That was
the situation then. CASS (2003:21) links their non-performance to centralisation of
power. Mentioned here are issues like the military intervention in politics and the
appropriation of major political offices and thereby promoting centralisation; federal take
over of revenue sources that previously belonged to lower levels of government and in
effect reducing the latter’s capacity and made them dependent on federal transfers;
deliberate takeover of functions formerly under the uspices of the two lower
governments for reasons of national unity/integration; and a host of others. To Bello-
Imam and Uga (op.cit), a number of factors precipitated the declining fortunes of local
governments in contemporary Nigeria. First, in their words, is the systematic
atomisation of the local government system in Nigeria and which has unconsciously led
to the over-establishment of the level of government and hence turned them into glorified
parish councils with hardly any means and capacity to deliver the traditional services of
local governments. Second, the imposition of a uniform structure on all the 774 local
government units, irrespective of their ability to deliver their constitutionally assigned
functions within the context also indirectly limits the effectiveness of local governments
in Nigeria. The third and the most relevant to this work is the external involvement, and
most times, the usurpation of the activities of the level of government by both the state
49