Participatory Governance: Assessing the Facilitative Leadership Role of Traditional Rulers in the Implementation of a Decentralised Policy in Nigeria

Traditional institutions offer a support system for self rule, democratic system, inclusion and collaborations for government. Established long before the modern bureaucracies, traditional leadership role has played a vital role as a facilitator of order to the overloaded and sub-apportioned bureaucracies. This study analysed how traditional rulers and their institutions play as community leaders to facilitate participation of the local people in the implementation of the National Cash Transfer Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria at a local level of governance using a theoretical lens of participative governance theory. Data were sourced from three local government areas of Lagos State and analysed using qualitative methods. The study suggests that traditional rulers, in the modern day governance arrangement, are meant to complement government and also assist in drawing support and facilitate inclusion in government project, policy or programmes. This study found evidences that suggests that the traditional leaders’ ability to position the people for involvement in government initiatives is not only a function of education but a host of other cognitive skills that the leader possesses which include his/her ability to inspire, motivate and to mobilise. Further, the outcome of this study provided an understanding that the involvement or non-involvement of the communities in government activities and policy implementation had no correlation with leaders’ political affiliations. This study argues that empowering leaders is a framing activity that gives legitimacy to policy implementation practices and outcomes. Therefore, policymakers should adopt a synergistic strategy where the traditional rulers regardless of educational background and political affiliation, are co-opted members of an advisory committee for policy implementation in the spirit of participatory governance.