As state governments are jostling to conduct elections to elect council officials due to the fiscal autonomy granted by the Supreme Court to local government areas (LGAs), the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission will only conduct elections in 20 LGAs, as opposed to the previous 57 LGAs and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).

This change is due to a bill before the state assembly, which will replace the LCDAs with Area Administrative Councils.

It was gathered that, as a result of the new designation for these areas of the state, rather than have effective officers, the governor will appoint an administrative secretary to oversee the Area Administrative Councils, subject to confirmation by the Lagos State House of Assembly.

This comes after the state government has conducted elections for 57 local councils and LCDAs in the last 20 years, although only 20 councils were recognised by the Federal Government for federal allocations.

The 37 local councils were created in Lagos State when President Bola Tinubu was governor, leading to several counter-accusations of marginalisation by the Federal Government in the non-recognition of the newly created councils.

Then-President Olusegun Obasanjo had told all states that created new councils to revert or else he would stop local council allocations meant for the state. While all the states reverted, Lagos State did not, resulting in Obasanjo stopping council allocations meant for the state.

However, when Lagos State converted the local councils into LCDAs, the Federal Government, through late President Umaru Yar’Adua, released the seized local government funds.

The state government, nonetheless, continued to treat the LCDAs with the same status as councils, as the LCDA heads are not only called council chairmen but also have elections conducted to elect their officials.

Some of the provisions in the bill to amend the state’s law on Local Government Administration include: “There remain 20 LGs as recognised by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“There shall be 37 Area Administrative Councils, formerly recognized as Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).

“To head each Area Administrative Council, an Administrative Secretary shall be appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Lagos State House of Assembly.

“The functions of the Area Administrative Council shall include every duty of the Local Government in its area of delineation, any duty assigned by the Law of the House, and executive directives from the Governor of the State.

“The state shall maintain a special account, to be called the State Joint Local Government Account, into which all allocations from the Federation account and the Government of the State will be paid.

“The following will be a first charge on funds received by the State Government from the Federation Account for the benefit of Local Government Councils in Lagos State:
(a) Salaries, allowances, and other benefits of all employees and other personnel of the Local Government Service Commission; and
(b) Payments due for essential local services, including the collection and disposal of refuse.

“An Area Administrative Council may employ such staff as it may consider necessary for the optimal execution of its development programme.

“An Area Administrative Council will retain all the rights, interests, obligations, and liabilities that became vested in or attached to it under any contract or instrument, or in law or equity, at the time it was operating as a Local Government Area.

“Subject to the provisions of the Independent National Electoral Commission Act, the State Electoral Commission 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 Local Government Council shall have the power to create more wards in addition to the existing wards in the State, and there shall be appointed more councillors to oversee such wards.

“The boundaries of each ward will be such that the number of inhabitants of the ward is as nearly equal to the population quota of the ward as is reasonably practicable.”

The Chairman of the Lagos State Assembly on Information, Stephen Ogundipe, was contacted to discuss the issues and some of the grey areas in the bill that contradicted the position of the Supreme Court. He did not answer his calls nor respond to the text message sent to his phone by press time.