EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT FISCAL RELATIONSHIP IN SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS IN KADUNA STATE

Abstract

Against the background of the 1976 local government reform that recognizes local government  as the third-tier government in Nigeria. This paper evaluates the effects of the fiscal  relationships between the State and Local Governments on the performance of local  governments in Kaduna State. The selected LGAs were Kaduna North, Kauru and Soba Local  Government areas of Kaduna state, therefore, the survey design was adopted in this study. The  study made use of primary instruments such as structured and unstructured questionnaire,  observation and interview as well as secondary sources of data. The population of this study  were the staff and community members of the three local government areas and the sample size  for this study is 384, comprising 300 for members of the communities and 84 for the staff of the  three Local government councils and Kaduna State Ministry of Local government Matters. They  data were presented using table, frequency count and percentage, while Chi- Square was used to  test the hypotheses. It was discovered that the provision in the 1999 constitution of the Federal  Republic of Nigeria that gave states the power to determine the creation, structure, function and  finance of local government adversely affect the fiscal relationships undermining the financial  autonomy of local government areas of Kaduna state, and this affects their effective service  delivery and performance of their statutory functions. The paper recommended that there is a  need for a constitutional review to grant the local government its requisite financial autonomy  for effective service delivery and rural development.