The Local Government Administration Bill, 2024, for Lagos State has passed its second reading at the State House of Assembly.
This was disclosed via the official X page of the State House of Assembly on August 27, 2024.
This development follows the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment approving financial autonomy for the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria, among other policy directives.
The LG Bill
Nairametrics previously reported that the Supreme Court of Nigeria had criticized states for exploiting LGAs.
The apex court ruled that 20.6% of the federation account allocation must be directly paid to local government accounts henceforth, bypassing state control.
The decision aims to enforce constitutional provisions that mandate local governments to manage their funds independently for development purposes at the grassroots level.
From the wording of the Lagos bill, titled “A Bill for a Law to Provide for Local Governments’ System, Establishment, and Administration and to Consolidate all Laws of Local Government Administration and for Connected Purposes,” it appears that the Lagos House of Assembly is now seeking to unify the state’s local government administration under one system.
Though the content of the bill is yet to be made public, as disclosed on the Lagos State website, the state is divided into 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA).
According to the government, this is in accordance with Nigeria’s federal structure and the need to bring governance, development, and participatory democracy to the grassroots.
CSOs’ demand
Meanwhile, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) believe that Lagos State and other states should grant full autonomy to the LGAs.
Yiaga Africa, in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), issued a press release on May 1, 2024, calling for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing local government autonomy in Lagos.
It added that this would be the most effective means of ensuring effective and democratic local government administration.
“Lagos State Local Government Councils are currently run by democratically elected administrators from the last local government elections in July 2021.
“The system of local government authority is established in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended), ensuring democratic and periodic elections in the local government should remain the priority of every Nigerian and every State Government.
“The lack of a legal framework that sufficiently addresses the autonomy of the local government in terms of funding and budgetary provisions is a fundamental gap in the effective administration of local government elections and its democratic development,” Yiaga stated.
It also emphasized that pending the constitutional amendment for full autonomy to LGAs, state governments are failing in their constitutional mandate to ensure the existence and functionality of democratically elected local government authorities.
More Insights
Nairametrics reports that the issue of Local Council Development Areas being implemented in Lagos is being challenged by some members of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON).
On August 20, 2024, the federal government appointed a 10-man inter-ministerial committee comprising the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, Governor of the Central Bank, Olayemi Cardoso, the AGF, and seven others to enforce the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy delivered in July 2024.
There was no lawmaker in the 10-man committee, implying that the implementation, for now, is an executive-only effort.
Despite the final verdict, the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, recently stated that the FG was aware of the threats and noises of reprisal by some (not all) of the principalities affected by that judgment of the Supreme Court, maintaining that their actions amount to contempt of court.
On August 22, 2024, he urged the Attorneys-General of the affected states to educate and offer sound legal advice to the governors, stating that there can be no appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court.
“They should therefore abide by the principles and doctrines of the rule of law, which is the bedrock of constitutional democracy,” Fagbemi stated at a valedictory session at the apex court, attended by a Nairametrics analyst.
The Supreme Court judgment implies that any administration other than the LGAs will not receive funding from the Federation Account.
