Local Government Performance Report

We are embarking on an online and offline poll which will gather information from citizens on the performance of their local government and how effective they have been in terms of delivery of public goods.

Assessing the delivery of effective service in Local Governments.

The result of these polls would then be presented in a report (e-copy & print).

Background & Scope

Why Local Government Performance Report?

Local government administration in Nigeria is meant to pivot the delivery of public goods at the most remote section of the country to people at the grassroots, who may never have the opportunity to meet a state government or have the platform to make known their demands. Local government structure provides provision of primary healthcare services, maintenance of roads, waste disposal and management, community policing, provision of sports and recreational centres are some of the basic and essential functions that local governments are best suited to perform due to their proximity to the people. Notwithstanding, development has not thrived up to public expectations at the grassroots level due to the alleged lack of a culture of accountability and transparency in the administration of local government in Nigeria. Accountability and transparency at the local government level are opaque. Hence this vague structure makes citizens’ demands difficult at this level. People do not have basic information about how LGAs work, their local government chairmen, an annual budget of the LGAs, federal allocations, and the project embarked on by the Local government. To solve this cyclical challenge of open governance, especially at the local level, we are introducing the Local Government Performance Report. All (20) Local governments in Lagos State were assessed in the first phase of the project.

Impact

The Local Government Performance Report will help ask critical questions of grassroots governance and help document the performance & concerns raised by their citizens during the project.

The Local Government Performance Survey & Report will encourage citizens to hold further their local government administrators accountable.

01

Accelerate the culture of youth leaders who are engaging with government policies and policymakers across all levels, especially at the local governments.

02

The importance of having youth leaders engage with policies and policymakers even at the local level and parastatals cannot be overemphasized. This would create a system of check on the excesses of these institutions, thus putting them in a position to deliver public goods to those that make demands.

03

It would help foster the creation of a platform that empowers young people with information on hitherto closed government tier (local government and government parastatals) to enable them to demand accountability and transparency and force leaders to the ideals of good governance.

04

In the short term, it helps improve accountability in these local governments (who currently don’t do much despite the massive allocations they get and the vantage position they hold by being the closest tier of government to the people), as more scrutiny is placed on their operations and how they utilize taxpayers’ money to execute developmental projects that benefit the people.

05

While in the long term, by empowering citizens with information to engage with policies and policymakers at the local level, we hope to create a culture that emphasizes & sustains the increasing culture of demanding transparency in governance.