EDUCATION

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STATE, CLASS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA: THE LIMITATIONS OF REFORMS
(1990) ABBASS, Isah Mohammed
There has been a considerable growth in the studies of the problems associated with Local Government in Nigeria. Most of these studies have only concentrated on the common issues like administration and efficiency to the total exclusion of the role of the state and the concomitant class interests that help dictate the Mod us-operandi of the Local Government Councils. This study attempts to show that the evolution and role of the state has a profound bearing on the activities of the Local Government. Thus, Local Government does not exist in a vacuum, isolated from and independent of the motion of the state. Invariably, our attempts to understand and explain the contemporary system of Local Government in Nigeria provokes such class analysis. Hence, the concepts of class and state provide the framework for historical and dialectical analysis in the evolution of the contemporary Nigerian state in order to show that the present situation has a direct linkage with the past. This study examines the class character of the Nigerian state which is involved in the processes of accumulation aimed at safeguarding class interest and dominatin^at the local level. It suggests that the peculiar nature of the dependent capitalist state precludes the existence of an effective and people-oriented third tier of government.