Local Governmnt Administration and Opposition Parties in Nigeria: 1999-2011

Abstract

Local government administration shapes the fate of modern democracy; because it is a medium where interest groups in the state stake and resolve their claims to political power through peaceful means. The grass root election in Nigeria since 1999 till date has been complex especially with opposition party since 1999 till date; and this violence cut across Nigeria. The democratic experiment in the administration of local government is marred with chaos, fraud, rigging, and all imaginable form of malpractices. This makes electoral process uninteresting in the grass root. The question remains is there active competition among competing aspirants of various political parties at the grass root level. The process of democratization will thrive when rural dwellers that form the bedrock of political process are allowed to make inputs in policies at the local level. Local government administration in Nigeria has been consistent with the exclusion of opposition parties. The theoretical nature of the paper examines concept, evolution and factors that hang ruling party in power against opposition party on the process of grass root election in Nigeria fourth republic, and suggest ways to resolve some attitudes meted by ruling party during electioneering to sustain our nascent democracy.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n16p17