Local Government Autonomy Analysis

Adeyemo argued that, Local Government autonomy is the freedom to the LGs to exercise their authority within the limits of the law or the constitution. This is to enable them to discharge legally or constitutionally assigned responsibilities satisfactorily, but without unnecessary interference from the higher authority. Moreover, he stated that, LG autonomy is supposed as local self-government or grassroots democracy. This grassroots democracy is primarily aimed at giving full opportunity for the vast majority of the people to participate in determining their own fortune. But he argued that, it is obvious that we cannot have complete autonomy or complete local self-government within sovereign states. If LGs were completely autonomous, they would

Federations with actual decentralization like Australia, Canada, Germany United States and Switzerland gives actual autonomy to local government while federation like the former soviet which does not have actual decentralization is very much reluctant in giving actual autonomy to local government. Similarly, Nwabueze and Adeyemo described autonomy under a federal system to mean that “each government enjoys a separate existence and independence from the control of the other governments” It is an autonomy which requires not just the legal and physical existence of an apparatus of government like a legislative assembly, Governor, Court etc. this implies that each government must exist not as an accessory of another government but as autonomous entity in the sense of being able to exercise its own purpose in the conduct of its affairs free from the control of another level of government. Moreover, Nwabueze stated that, autonomy would only be meaningful in a situation whereby each level of government is not constitutionally bound to accept directive from another level of

This is not true of all systems that are called federal, however, but only of those with actual decentralization. For instance, the Soviet government is formally organized along federal lines, but such decentralization of authority to the districts as exists occurs under strict central government controls; it is made abundantly clear that the sub-units of the Soviet system (the “republics” and their subdivisions) are in reality agents of the central government and the Communist party. On the other hand, in federal systems with many decentralized for example, Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Therefore, the degree of autonomy of local government varies considerably from country to country, but in all cases a considerable degree of local independence