THE ROLE OF TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

As a country, Nigeria is the outcome of the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate and the Southern Protectorate. Ever since its formation nonetheless, the country has gone through various phases. Colonial domination, the several military coups, the Civil War are some of the negatives which have somewhat blighted the constitutional history of Nigeria and even in recent times, constitutional discuss seems to have shifted towards the manifest maladministration which continues to bedevil the country: a situation which is also visible in the massive corrupt and incompetent institutions of governance at the local levels of the country. However, a number of studies have acknowledged the buoyancy, acceptability and relevance of African traditional institutions in the socio-cultural, economic and political lives of Africans, particularly in the rural areas. Therefore, scholars have variously expressed the view that by totally neglecting the traditional institutions in local governance, there has been a loss in local cohesion in Nigeria thereby leading to the several noticeable negatives. This paper considers the concepts of traditional institutions and local governance, while analyzing the roles of traditional institutions in the different epochs of Nigeria’s constitutional history.