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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognizes Local Government as the third tier of government. According to the United States Office of Public Administration, a local government is seen as a political sub-division of a nation state, which is constituted by law and have substantial control of Local affairs including the power to impose taxes or to exact labour for peaceful purposes. The local government system in Nigeria has undergone several reforms among which were 1976, 1984, 1991 and 2003 reforms respectively. The reasons for these reforms were to make the Nigeria local government virile, independent and more functional.  Literally, local government can be defined as government at the local level exercised through representative councils. Local governments are to exercise specific powers within defined areas: such as, these powers should give councils substantial control over initiation and direct provision of social services, in order to be able to determine and implement projects to complement the activities of state and federal government in their areas. Government administration is useful in the provision of public needs because the world changes.  It is hard to say that economic conditions, competition, public needs and the other factors will be the same, some years to come. The importance of this process is that it enables a government to help to shape its own future than to simply prepare for the future. The aims and objective of local government are to recognize the increasing role of the government in the management of resources and the provision of essential service to the community. Community can be defined as a group of people living in a geographically defined area or a group that interacts because of social, economic or political interest.  There are thus many communities within each local government area.These communities like Ifelodun local government have different needs some of which the local government is expected. Generally, funds are always the main stream through which the survival of any organization depends, especially for execution or carrying out its civic responsibilities. The federal, state, and local governments like any other organization have a range of functions which they are expected to perform. In addition to the maintenance of law and order, these are other functions like the provision and maintenance of certain social amenities and services. For local government to perform these functions effectively they need funds, they must have adequate financial resources. Local government generates their funds from two (2) common ways one is through Internally General Reserve (IGR) and the other is statutory allocation. The IGR is revenue generated within local government areas, like rates, fines etc, while statutory allocation are funds from the federal government allocation, value added tax (VAT), state statutory allocation that is 10 percent of the state's resources. However, the three (3) tiers of government have their own way of sharing the national collected revenue, which is based on the revenue allocation formula. Even with the funds from the central pool, and local government still face a problem of several fiscal imbalance, their revenue is very small compared to their expenditure. This research work is an attempt to highlight the problems and prospects of internally generated revenue of Ifelodun local government. Also the printing and control of revenue records and financial regulations by the council and to discuss the short coming and other related constrains. In this regards, the problem of collecting revenue, function of revenue collection agencies, inadequate auditing and supervision, as well as revenue mobilization will be the main focus of this research work. From the foregoing, it is clear that Local Government are to bring development or better life of the people at the grass root. The Local Government under review, that is Ifelodun Local Government was created or became an autonomous Local Government entity in October 2003, with Prince Taiwo Adenekan at the helm of affairs and as the head of the interim management committee (IMC). During the 1976 local government, Ajeromi-Ifelodun local government became known as Awori-Ajeromi District council and during Brigadier Obasanjo's regime, Awori-Ajeromi was merged with Badagry local government. In 1980, during the civilian era of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, twenty-three (23) local government areas were created and Ajeromi-Ifelodun came into being. Shortly later, the then military government reversed the status to an area office under Ojo Government. Ajeromi-ifelodun reclaimed its status in November. 1996 when the federal military government announced the creation of four (4) more Local Government Area in Lagos State. One cannot discuss the historical perspective of Ifelodun Local Government Area in isolation without providing an insight into the definition of traditional boundaries of rural/chieftaincyfamilies. The main reason is that, from time immemorial, descendants of these royal or chieftaincy families by virtue of inheritance and blood lineage have been the bonafide owners and custodians of land in all ramifications, It is instructive to emphasize that land matters be it in the old Ajeromi- Ifelodun entity or in newly created Ifelodun entity or in broader perspectives in Lagos State is still vested exclusively on the indigene and aborigine settlers, and they exercise ownership and jurisdiction on demarcated boundaries and sphere of control. Ifelodun Local Government, as it is presently constituted, comprises of five (5) district communities that evolved from generation to generation with common similarities. The five (5) communities are namely: Amukoko, Mosaiejo, Layeni, Abuke Keke, Alaba Oro and Oke Oya Oridilu. Historically, what is now called Ifelodun is part of the vast Ojora land stretching up to Orile part of Surulere, Ebute Iganmu, Ajegunle and part of Apapa. Ojora family like, their counterpart Aborigine landowning families are the descendants of the first and early settlers on the islands of Eko now Lagos, Iddo including Otto and Ebute-Metta on the mainland. These early settlers were undoubtedly Aworis, a stock of Yorubas, mainly hunters and fishermen who migrated from fishing settlements to the mainland and crisscrossed from coast to coast to resettle at different locations within the passage of time. For administrative purpose, the local government (Ifelodun) is headed by the chairman, followed by the secretary, and six (6) heads of department, heading the six (6) various departments in the local government council under which there are also various sectional heads, heading the sections.

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