It has been observed that the Local Governments in Nigeria appear limited in exercising their constitutional functions of rural development, which seems to negatively affect the development of the rural areas in Nigeria. This study assessed the effect of selected local governments on rural development in Nasarawa State with emphasis on Lafia; Nasarawa and Wamba LGAs. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study are 20,600 indigenes of Lafia; Nasarawa and Wamba LGAs of Nasarawa State. A sample size of 399 was drawn from this population using Taro Yamane formula. The main instrument used for collecting data was questionnaire which was complimented with documentary sources. The simple percentage method was used for data analysis while Chi-Square was used to test the three hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study indicated that there is a positive significant contribution of Lafia; Nasarawa and Wamba LGAs to rural development in Nasarawa State, with evidences on infrastructural development, educational development and healthcare provision. The study therefore recommended that Lafia; Nasarawa and Wamba LGAs should prioritise the completion of ongoing projects and embark on new ones to address the infrastructural gap, increase funding on education to provide adequate resources for schools, establish programmes to attract and retain qualified teachers for basic education, prioritize the upgrading of healthcare facilities and equipment as well as establish monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure that development projects are implemented effectively and efficiently in rural areas.