Paper short abstract:

The creation of local government areas in Nigeria is hinged on the premise of bringing development closer to the people. This paper analyzes how well this strategy has helped in addressing development inequalities in urban Nigeria

Paper long abstract:

The creation of local government areas (LGAs) as a the third tier of government in Nigeria, a practice that started in 1976, is hinged on the premise of bringing development closer to the people and addressing spatial inequalities in development among areal units. With the current number of LGAs at 774 and increasing demands from several urban settlements across the federation for autonomy, this study analyzes the efficacy of jurisdictional partitioning exercise as a regional development strategy using the LGAs in Oyo State as a case study. To describe the spatial pattern of development before and after the decentralization exercise of 1996, twenty four development indicators, were identified and reduced to four uncorrelated variables using the Principal Component Analysis statistical technique. The four principal components accounted for 83% of the total variance in the indicators and were used to compare the levels of development among the newly autonomous urban centers. A composite ranking of the LGAs on a three-level development surface was thereafter carried out using the Hierarchical Cluster analysis. The results indicate that levels of development in the urban centers that were excised to form the new LGAs remained same in seven, improved in one, and declined in six of the LGAs. This implies that decentralization in itself is not an inadequate tool for addressing development inequality but a veritable tool for the identification of priority areas for development planning.

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