SIR: Local Government Areas (LGAs) must be distinguished from Local Government Councils (LGCs). Whereas it’s true that the Constitution creates and lists LGAs (section 3 (6)), there’s nowhere LGCs, which are repeatedly mentioned in the Constitution, are created by the Constitution.

Rather, section 7 (1) of the Constitution guarantees that LGAs (or LGs) shall be administered democratically by elected LGCs. Such councils shall exist by the law of each state which provides for their *”establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions”* (emphasis supplied).

The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution only lists some (not all) _functions_ to be exercised by LGCs, in addition to those to be contained in the law of each state establishing them.

In essence, local government councils (LGCs) are established to exercise functions. They’re not parties to the system of distributed powers of the Nigerian Federation, whether in the Exclusive and Concurrent Legislative Lists, or exercised alone as residual powers by the states. Thus, only the Federal and State Governments are parties to the federal system of Nigeria. Local Government Councils are not. They’re subordinate to their respective states, to the extent that they exist on the basis of the law made by each state.

The above arrangement is not unique to Nigeria. Virtually all federations have similar arrangements. What is apparently unique about the Nigerian Constitution is that it creates Local Government Areas and names them (section 3 (6)). The Constitution also guarantees that these LGAs or LGs shall be administered by democratically elected LGCs to be established by the States. Such LGCs are to exercise functions not powers!
• Professor Edoba Omoregie is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)