{"id":6552,"date":"2025-06-24T23:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T23:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T05:09:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T05:09:01","slug":"democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published as: Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Original Article Link: Read Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n

Download PDF: Click Here to Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h2>\n

The local government administration is no doubt central to the democratic process in Nigeria. It provides the training grounds for grassroots mobilization, socio-economic development, and the cardinal philosophy of representation and political participation in the overall political system of the country. A periodic election, which is the core feature of democracy through which the people at the grassroots freely participate in the process of selection of their leaders and to ensure the legitimacy of the local government council, unfortunately, remains elusive in Nigeria. Thus, this work focuses on the reasons and implications of the near absence of local government elections in most states of Nigeria. Secondary data were used and content analysis was equally adopted for the work, while democratic participatory theory was employed. The research found that most of the state governors prefer the use of caretaker committees, which is not recognized by the constitution of the country rather than conducting a periodic election for people at the grassroots because of economic benefit and to accord themselves a political advantage over their perceived opponents. The work established that deliberate neglect of election into the local government councils, unfortunately, promotes a lack of accountability and corruption in the councils. Hence, the work recommends the amendment of the Nigerian constitution to ensure a compulsory and periodic election into local government councils, as it remains the sure means of guaranteeing democratic participation of the grassroots in the selection of the leaders.<\/p>\n

Authors<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Timothy Onimisi (Federal University Lokoja)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Keywords<\/h2>\n

    Democracy, Election, Grassroots, Local Government, Political Participation<\/p>\n

    References<\/h2>\n

    References not available for this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This article was originally published as: Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues Original Article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[1257,575,3840,1842,3128],"class_list":["post-6552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-democracy","tag-election","tag-grassroots","tag-local-government","tag-political-participation","wpcat-124-id"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues - IJSSASS Repository<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues - IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article was originally published as: Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues Original Article...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-24T23:40:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-29T05:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\"},\"headline\":\"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-24T23:40:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-29T05:09:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\"},\"wordCount\":304,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"democracy\",\"Election\",\"Grassroots\",\"local government\",\"Political participation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\",\"name\":\"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues - IJSSASS Repository\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-24T23:40:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-29T05:09:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"description\":\"Open Access Library\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":195,\"caption\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues - IJSSASS Repository","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues - IJSSASS Repository","og_description":"This article was originally published as: Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues Original Article...","og_url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/","og_site_name":"IJSSASS Repository","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass","article_published_time":"2025-06-24T23:40:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-29T05:09:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":195,"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771"},"headline":"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues","datePublished":"2025-06-24T23:40:19+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-29T05:09:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/"},"wordCount":304,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"keywords":["democracy","Election","Grassroots","local government","Political participation"],"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/","name":"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues - IJSSASS Repository","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-24T23:40:19+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-29T05:09:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/democratic-practices-and-local-government-elections-in-nigeria-demystifying-the-emerging-issues\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Democratic Practices and Local Government Elections in Nigeria: Demystifying the Emerging Issues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","description":"Open Access Library","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"alternateName":"IJSSASS","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","alternateName":"IJSSASS","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","width":300,"height":195,"caption":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal"],"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6589,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6552\/revisions\/6589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}