Transforming Local Governance Through Digital Innovation: A Theoretical Framework for E-Democracy and Accountability in Nigerian Local Government

This dissertation develops an original theoretical framework for understanding the conditions, processes, and outcomes of digital transformation in Nigerian local government, with specific focus on the potential of digital innovation to enhance democratic participation, fiscal accountability, and development governance. Digital governance holds transformative promise for addressing structural accountability deficits in Nigerian local government, yet existing e-government theories, developed in Western high-connectivity contexts, inadequately theorize the political economy, infrastructure constraints, and institutional adoption challenges confronting local governments in low-resource environments. Employing Technology Governance Theory, Actor-Network Theory, and the Digital Institutionalism Framework, this study conducts a multi-site comparative case study across twelve local government areas in Lagos, Enugu, and Kano States that have experimented with different forms of digital governance tools including e-payment systems, online budget portals, social media citizen engagement platforms, and digital procurement systems. Primary data is gathered from 80 elite interviews with technology officers, local government executives, digital governance innovators, citizens, and civil society tech monitors. Secondary data includes ICT adoption datasets, comparative digital government assessments from East Africa, and recent academic literature on e-democracy in developing countries. The dissertation's original contribution is the Digital Governance Adoption and Accountability Model, which maps the pathways through which digital tools translate into accountability improvements given specific Nigerian governance conditions. Findings are expected to identify political will, infrastructure investment, and citizen digital literacy as the three critical enabling conditions. Keywords: Digital innovation, e-democracy, accountability, local government, Nigeria, digital governance framework.