Structural Similarities and Differences between the Local Government System in Nigeria and the United States of America: A Comparative Analysis

The local government system as a tier of government in Nigeria have been enmeshed in intense debate and analyses with the view to not only identify the reasons behind the continuous failure of local governments in Nigeria, in the aspect of service delivery but also its structural situation in comparism with local governments system in other climes of the world. This modest paper adopts a comparative analysis approach to examine the structural similarities and differences between the local government systems in Nigeria and United States' Georgia. The paper adopted the Efficiency Service Delivery Theory as it’s analytical framework. Data for the paper were sourced mainly from secondary sources, as such the paper was operationalized via the documentary qualitative method. Collected data were analyzed via the qualitative content analysis method. The paper revealed fundamental differences in structural organizations between the two systems of local government which indicates that the local governments in Georgia with it’s greater complexity and dual systems of counties and municipalities perform better service delivery than Nigeria’s unified system. The paper thus concludes that fundamental differences in structural organization, financial autonomy and administrative approach is significantly responsible for the poor service delivery of local government in Nigeria. Accordingly, the paper recommends amongst others; that the Federal Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning should review the funding patterns of local governments for more cash flow. This should include the reform of the state joint account system and development of alternative revenue generation methods via the push for constitutional amendments.