Corruption and Service Delivery in Local Government System in Nigeria: A Content Analysis
Egberi Anthony Ejue, Madubueze, Madumelu. C

Abstract
The existence of government is to deliver social services that will make life meaningful and worth living. Local governments as a tier of government were created to bring government closer to the people at the rural communities and for transformation of lives at that level. One of the ways of bringing government closer to the people at the grassroots is through the delivery of social services in a satisfactory, timely, effective and adequate manner. This Paper is thus, aimed at examining the effect of Corruption on Service Delivery in Local Government System in Nigeria. The paper argues that the Constitutional mandate of Local Government in terms of “performance” has not been translated into reality due to corruption in the system. Data for the study was generated from secondary sources, anchoring on ‘Principal- Agent Model’ as a theoretical basis. It was found amongst others that, due to the privileged position of the Public Servants (Agents) to public resources and information, they tend to abuse these privileges to the detriments of the ‘Principals’ (Nigerian citizens). The paper therefore recommended that local governments must make effort to overcome corruptions that have caused them to avoid their performance. It is only by this effort, can the local governments be positioned to render social services in a timely, effective, adequate, prompt and satisfactory manner to justify their continuous existence and the huge financial allocations to them.

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