LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVLOPMENT AS A CORNER STONE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Local Governments all over the world are not only political entities of governance but regarded as decentralized institutions with well-defined areas of powers and fiscal responsibilities to be performed. In Nigeria since 1976 Reform, Local Governments have well defined areas of constitutional powers and fiscal responsibilities. The major challenge faced by the Local Governments in Nigeria was the gap between the concept of Local Government as envisaged in the Nigerian Constitution and the practice of government at the grassroots. The paper therefore, seeks to examine the role and involvement of local government in the local economic development planning and sustainable rural economic development. The methodology employed was the use of desktop analysis for the four major dimensions of local government strategic planning. These dimension assessed are: The state support for local government planning; the level strategic planning been carried out by local governments; Annual and project plans for local government projects and programs; and service planning implementation of the local government. Our analyses have shown that most of the measurement indicators for local government strategic planning have scored low in all the dimensions. It was recommended that long/short term strategic planning is a fundamental tool for giving local Governments and communities a sense of control over their own development. Local economic development planning should be carefully thought by the state during the Local Government policy making process and determine the level of planning it expects from local government.