…Gives Governor Power To Suspend Erring Chairmen, Vice Chairmen

The Lagos State House of Assembly is set to replace the current 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state with Administrative Areas.

This is contained in a Bill for a Law to provide for Local Government’s System, Establishment And Administration And to Consolidate All Laws On Local Government Administration And Connected Purposes, which went through public hearing on Thursday.

The bill specifies that the system of Local Government will be by democratically elected Local Governments.

According to the Bill, there shall be twenty (20) Local Government Areas in the State as specified in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

The bill is coming on the heels of the financial autonomy recently granted the 774 local governments in the country by the Supreme Court, which specified that money would not be released to any local government, which has no democratically elected executive members.

“As from the commencement of this Law, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) shall conduct elections into the twenty (20) Local Government Councils in the state as recognised by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered).

“The twenty (20) Local Government Councils shall have designated Area Administrative Offices as listed in the 1st Schedule to this Law for effective and efficient local government administration in the State.

“Each Local Government Area will have its headquarters in the place names in the third column of Schedule 1 to this Law.

“There shall be thirty-seven (37) Area Administrative Councils in the State with the names specified in Schedule 11 of the Creation of Local Government Areas (Amendment) Law of 2004,” the Bill stated.

It was added that each Local Government’s Administrative Council shall be headed by Area Administrative Secretary, who shall be appointed by the Governor subject to the confirmation of the House.

The Bill stated further that each Area Administrative Council shall be funded by the Local Government Area under which it falls.

Moreso, it was stated that each Local Government Area has the power to delegate any of its functions to the Area Administrative Council falling within the territory of the Local Government Area.

“Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other law, each Area Administrative Council will retain all the rights, interests, obligations and liabilities, which became vested in or attached to it under any contract or instrument, or on law or equity, all the time it was operating as a Local Government Area.

“Subject to the provisions of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Act, the State Electoral Commission, LASIEC, shall divide each Local Government Area into such number of wards, not being less than twelve (12) or more than forty (40) as the circumstances of each Local Government Area may require,” the bill read.

The proposed law, in Section 30, stated that the Governor shall have the right to suspend any Chairman or Vice Chairman or any elected official/political appointee, which it said shall at the expiration of such suspension resume office and shall notify the House upon resumption of office.

The law however, repealed the Local Government Administration Law Ch L89 Laws of the Lagos State 2015 and the Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2016.

Stakeholders at the event, including His Royal Majesty, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabir Shotobi, the Chairman of Odi Olowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Hon Rasak Ajala, a former commissioner in the state, Hon Oyinlomo Danmole and Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, faulted some aspects of the bill.

Specifically, Hon. Ajala faulted the law, saying that it would lead to underdevelopment in the grassroots.

The Chairman stated that the financial autonomy granted local governments should not change anything in the arrangements in Lagos State, which he said was fought to the Supreme Court then.

According to him, “even with LCDAs, the money meant for a particular area would be shared by the main local government and the LCDAs, so changing them to development areas would have no effect.

“The Assembly should leverage on the powers conferred on them by Section 7 sub-section 1 of the Nigerian Constitution and allow the LCDAs to be,” he said.

This was also the position of HRM, Oba Shotobi, who insisted that the LCDAs are aiding developments in the grassroots.

In his comments, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro faulted the Assembly for not giving the public hearing proper publicity, saying that the problems in the local governments are deep and profound.

“The public hearing is being done without due consultations. In a democratic setting, the people are more important. I can’t even see any leader of our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), here. What we enjoyed as local governments chairmen are no longer there,” he said.

The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, said earlier in his speech delivered by his Deputy, Hon Mojisola Meranda, that “we are gathered here to consider and reflect on a bill that seeks to further enhance how our third tier of Government should be administered.”

Obasa recalled that just about two weeks back, people were also gathered to deliberate on the electoral bill for the Local government elections which he said is the first right step before the House could go into how the local government should function.

“This Bill has passed the preliminary stages and the House is hereby subjecting it to public appraisal in our transparent convention.

“At this stage, we subject the bill to public assessment, gathering public observations and thoughts to reflect on them in the next stage of the bill.

“The bill is seeking to consolidate all laws on Local Government administration. The law, when passed, will allow the local government function optimally with strict adherence to the rule of law and separation of powers within the Local Government.

“The bill clearly states the functions of the Chairman, Vice chairman, Legislative council and other local government functionaries.

“The Bill also makes emphasis on creation of thirty–seven Area administrative councils, in addition to the original twenty Local Government listed in the bill, the councils would be headed by Area administrative secretaries to be appointed subject to the approval of the House,” he said.

The Speaker stressed that the bill also made mention of four years tenure for the elective offices in the local government, which he said has finally removed the ambiguity of the past as regards tenure of these elective officers.

The bill, he said, has elaborated upon all that needs to be done for an effective administration of the Local government be it, declaration of assets, nomination of a chairman, removal of a chairman or vice chairman, discharge of functions of the chairman, local government area supervisors appointees, Executive powers of the local government, street naming and many more.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Local Government Administration, Chieftaincy Affairs and Rural Development, Hon Sanni Family Okanlawon, said that the purpose of the public hearing was to allow the people make meaningful contributions to the bill before it is passed into law by the assembly.