Local governance

Abstract

Local governance in Africa is not a given. It is a design. Within the process of nation-state building, African states faced similar realities. They had to deal with issues that come up as a result of an ethnically diverse society, technological backwardness, weak state institutions and limited state capacities to extract and redistribute resources, as well as the state lacking national coherence. The daunting task after achieving independence was and still is the transformation of a once colonial dominion into a formidable nation-state with the vision of a fast-paced development.