Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Chapter VII: The Political Class and Intergovernmental Relations in Nigeria
creature of the state government.
The status of these local
governments as tier of government in the Nigerian federation is
questionable under the 1999 constitution. They cooperate with state
government at all levels as a consequence. In routine administration,
policy and party issues, this cooperation is reflected. Unfortunately,
this cooperation has shown to be negative on the general welfare of
citizens.
At the level of Federal-local government, much have been in the area
of finance. The federal Government funds the Local Governments
through allocations from the Federal account. As commonly noted, he
who pays the piper dictates the tune. This was very true of the
relationship between the centre and the local governments until the
time the state governments took over the responsibility of receiving on
behalf of the local governments.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Apparently, the character of the political class has been projected
into all present structures of intergovernmental relations in Nigeria.
That means that even if the federal executive president is prodevelopment
as can be observed over the past couple of years since
1999, the problem is the opportunity of failure through the negative
and anti-democracy behaviours of most of the politicians, serving or
desiring elective office. The intergovernmental structures are therefore
weak due to manipulative tendencies of dominant political class from
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