Subnational Sovereignty, Local Government Authority, and Development Governance in Nigeria’s Federal System: A Critical Re-examination

This dissertation critically re-examines the concept of subnational sovereignty in Nigeria's federal system, specifically interrogating the theoretical and constitutional basis of local government authority as a development governance institution and proposing an original reconceptualization of local government sovereignty grounded in community self-governance rights rather than state-delegated administrative authority. Existing constitutional and governance theory treats Nigerian local government as a creature of statute, an institution whose powers are derived from and revocable by state governments, producing a structurally dependent local government system incapable of autonomous developmental governance. This dissertation challenges this theoretical consensus by drawing on theories of Popular Sovereignty, Subsidiarity Doctrine, and the Community Self-Governance Movement in Africa and Latin America to argue for a rights-based reconstitution of local government authority rooted in community constituent power rather than state delegation. Employing critical constitutional theory methodology, historical institutionalism, and comparative analysis of local government sovereignty frameworks in Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda, this study gathers primary data from 80 constitutional scholars, civic leaders, community rights advocates, local government association officials, and federal legislature members across all six geopolitical zones. Secondary data includes constitutional convention records, judicial decisions on local government authority, and international comparative constitutional law literature. The dissertation's original contribution is the Community Constituent Sovereignty Framework for Nigerian local governance, which provides a theoretical and constitutional roadmap for repositioning local government as a community-sovereignty institution rather than a state administrative agent. Keywords: Subnational sovereignty, local government authority, development governance, constitutional theory, Nigeria, community self-governance.