The paper examines local government and intergovernmental relations in
Nigeria‟s Fourth Republic, with special attention on the period of 1999 to 2014. The paper
argues that Local Government is not mutually exclusive of other levels of government and
that as such there is bound to be an interaction between the local and other levels of
government. The study reveals that intergovernmental relations among the levels of
government in the Fourth Republic up to 2014 were in disarray due to the conflicts over
issues of tax jurisdiction, revenue allocation, intergovernmental relations, fund transfers,
overconcentration of power at the centre, illegal removal of government officials, among
other factors. The paper posits that for cordial relationship between the local and other
levels of government to take place, the constitutional status of local government must be
clearly spelt out, the issue of joint state-local government account should be reversed,
election rather than appointment should be the means of choosing leaders at the local level,
judiciary should be made to be independent and the undue interference on the local
government by the state or federal government has be properly addressed. Also, there
should be direct disbursement of federation allocation to all the levels of government.