Political Economy of Autonomous Communities in Southeast Nigeria

A Study of Select Autonomous Communities in Anambra State, 2003-2023.

Abstract

This paper explores “The Political Economy of Autonomous Communities in Southeast Nigeria a study of Anambra state 68 Autonomous Communities” Currently, Nigeria runs a Federal system of government which has been criticized as defective because of its unitary operative mechanisms. In a true Federation, as exemplified by the USA, the center is weakened through significant decentralization processes in order to strengthen the federating states and component units. The government process also involves fiscal federalism where each federating units is free to generate and control their resources and remit commensurate revenue to the federal Government in form of taxes. These states will therefore take greater responsibility for developing their local communities, enact relevant laws, control their security apparatus and maintain a significant level of autonomy and so the three-tiered government structure in Nigeria's federal system has proven insufficient due to the rising population and development needs in rural communities, where local government autonomy is lacking. Consequently, there is a growing recognition worldwide of the need for power devolution and decentralized decision-making and governance, as government activities and population growth continue to increase.This paper therefore argued that Nigerian current federal system is disadvantaged to the people of southeast due to less states and local governments in the zone which consequently cause the rise in demand for creation of autonomous communities as alternative for the purpose of bringing development to the grassroots. In terms of methodology, the paper is primarily located in qualitative cannon and adopts the explanatory research design. Data for the research is generated from primary and secondary sources. The primary source involved a semi-structured interview key informant (KlI) that was administered to selected stakeholders in the zones, while the secondary data is generated from books, government publications and other relevant document. The bulk of data generated is analyzed through textual data analysis. Using the conglomerate society and growth models approaches, the study argues that there is need for the government of the state to return the recognition to all the 68 autonomous Communities of the State, as it can conveniently carter for it and it still fall short of numbers in other states of the southeast despite the fact that Anambra state is more populated than other states in the zone. Based on the findings from this paper, recommendations where advanced to aid future projects and program of the government.