The paper is an exploration of the roles of local government leadership in wealth creation and poverty reduction.
The study was motivated by the strategic position of local government as the closest tier of government to the
people. This position was seen as the most vantage to create wealth and reduce poverty in Nigeria. Effective local
government leadership was explored and seen to be a stateman with resolute will and spirit as well as consistency to
turn the fortunes of the people around. This is against a demagogue who is interested only in personal
aggrandizement. We examined the primacy of agriculture in wealth creation and poverty reduction and found that if
local government leadership can take the lead in agriculture through modernization and diversification of
agricultural production enormous wealth would be created and poverty drastically reduced. The leader of the local
government leadership should never be at the neglect of the people. The people should be supported and assisted.
This will remove more people from the farm but still improve the value of agricultural produce in the economy.