Historically speaking there have always been agitations for the autonomy of local government in Nigeria. Fiscal autonomy in local government administration is generally accepted to be the instrument for effective and efficient service delivery for the grassroots. Local government fiscal autonomy is the independence of the local government to impose local taxation, generate revenue within its constitutional powers, allocates its financial and material resources determines and authorizes its own annual budget without external interferences. It is somewhat worrisome to observe that various literature reveals that in Nigeria, the rural areas are under developed and local government councils do not have sufficient resources to discharge their constitutional responsibilities because the state governors in Nigeria take charge of the local government council’s funds. The major objective of this study is to assess financial autonomy and local government performance in the fourth republic in selected local government councils in south/south states in Nigeria. This study employed secondary method to source of data. The adopted public finance theory. The study will enrich existing literature in Public Administration and will be used as a policy instrument for government and policy makers. The study made some recommendations that financial Autonomy should be granted to democratically elected Local Government councils for effective and efficient service delivery at the grassroots levels in Nigeria, among others.