Abstract
The question of the autonomy of the local government has dominated many debates as the major limiting factor for grassroots development in Nigeria. This paper, as an exploration of some extensive empirical and theoretical literature on the local government system in Nigeria, reveals that local governments lack financial, political, and administrative autonomy due to constitutional ambiguities as well as the continued subordination and interference in their affairs. For local governments to be genuinely autonomous, a constitutional amendment that emphasizes an autochthonous local government system must be considered. It is also opined that the local government adopt a more strategic internally generated revenue system with a water-tight mechanism for preventing all tendencies of corrupt practices. This paper concludes that the dominant patrimonial and prebendal politics must be eschewed for desirable local government autonomy towards a far-reaching developmental agenda at the grassroots level of the Nigerian polity.