The paper examines the nature of local government autonomy of Brazil and Nigeria and the reasons for the failure of local government autonomy in these countries. Study adopted secondary source of data. The paper revealed that the two countries exhibit divergence in the manner of constitutionalizing, which also provides difference in degree of autonomy enjoyed by the local government- where the constitution provides powers and rights of local government directly or whether it seeks to achieve these through the laws of other governmental levels. In Nigeria the structure has not lifted the local government beyond an embedded system in a dual federal structure in which the states merely deal with local governments as appendages rather than as separate tier of government. In Brazil, the structure provides relative political and fiscal autonomy, but also inhibits smooth fiscal control by federal government that makes constitutional changes more frequent. While Brazilian Municipalities enjoy a higher degree of political autonomy, it is found that the constitutional provisions in Nigeria, encourages and empowers the states and federal government to have control over the finance of local governments. This development has brought to the fore the question of local government autonomy in Nigeria. Although, in both experience, there are no complete or absolute autonomy because their greater sources of revenue are derived from the state and central governments. The paper therefore recommends constitutional review of both countries to strengthen and guarantees the power and jurisdiction of the local government in term of source of revenue for sustainability of their autonomy.

The paper examines the nature of local government autonomy of Brazil and Nigeria and the reasons for the failure of local government autonomy in these countries. Study adopted secondary source of data. The paper revealed that the two countries exhibit divergence in the manner of constitutionalizi...