International Journal of Law and Legal Studies

International Journal of Law and Legal Studies ISSN 2463-5634 Vol. 9 (5), pp. 001-003, May, 2021. © International Scholars Journals

The new government has provided for a legal framework that necessitates the establishment and institutiona-lization of ward committees as vehicles to entrench participatory governance at the grass root level. Accor-ding to Roger Southall (2004)¹, ‘participatory democracy entails a high level of public participation in the political process through a wide variety of institutional channels’. Indeed, participatory democracy can only come into being when ordinary men and women, young and old are afforded an opportunity to actively and meaningfully contribute to their own development and well being. The purpose of this paper is two fold: firstly, it seeks to highlight the importance of ward committees as engines to impel public participation. Secondly, to draw reader’s attention to some of the key impediments faced by the institution of ward committees in term of achieving the foregoing. It is thus imperative that we do not despise other alternative forms of participation. The argument is that ward committees can only become effective and efficient vehicles for engaging communities in municipal decision-making when complement by other pragmatic mechanisms of participation.