Infused in the context of the democratic epoch, public or community participation becomes the life blood through which the notion of democracy qualifies to be for people and by the people. The available evidence from the literature, point out that by engaging the citizens in matters of governance, not only that there could be a panacea for looming democratic deficit (Gaventa, 2004; Luckham et al., 2000), but people could also be afforded an opportunity to exercise their democratic right to influence decisions through their active partaking in the democratic elected structures' activities particularly those in the local government sphere. In this article, the authors argue that the struggle for forging democracy from below requires conscientised, multi-skilled and empowered municipal officials, citizens and communities, if local government is to be transformed to proactively and effectively serve the diverse needs and challenges i