It is common knowledge that most States, in recent times, have resorted to governing the local governments through caretaker committees set up by the State Government. On whether or not the same is constitutional, Section 7(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended) provides thus:
The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every State shall, subject to section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.
In the same vein, Section 1(2) and (3) provide thus:
(2) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed, nor shall any persons or group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
(3) If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void.
ANALYSIS/OPINION: These sections show that local government councils are set up to be managed by democratically elected persons. Thus, it is not the intention of the constitution drafters that a caretaker committee be set up in place of local government councils (applying the golden rule of statutory interpretation). In other words, although caretaker committees have become a prevalent practice in different states across the federation, and are fast replacing local government councils, they are unconstitutional. This opinion is supported by a Supreme Court decision in 2016 that forbade states from sacking elected local government administrators and running the local government without elected officials. In that case, the Supreme Court held that Section 23(b) of the Ekiti State Local Government Administration (Amendment) Law, 2001, which empowered the governor to dissolve local government councils, whose tenure was yet to expire, violated Section 7(1) of the Constitution from which the state House of Assembly derived the power to enact the local government law. (See: Despite Supreme Court Judgment, Oyo, 12 Others Run LGs with Caretakers – THISDAYLIVE).
TENURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCILS
According to Section 108 of the Electoral Act 2022, an area council shall stand dissolved at the expiration of a period of four (4) years commencing from when the Chairman took the oath of office or when the legislative arm of the Council was inaugurated, whichever is earlier. This provision is an amendment to the previous provision in the Electoral Act of 2010 which provided for a three (3) years term for an Area Council. However, the term of years differs among states. Presently, states work with tenures that last between 6 months – 3 years. Due to these discrepancies, there have been calls to harmonize the tenure of Local Government Councils across all States in Nigeria to provide a unified term for all (See: National Assembly should harmonise tenure of LG chairmen – ALGON – Punch Newspapers (punchng.com); Ex-Reps Member Seeks Unified Tenure For LG Chairmen, Councilors (leadership. ng)).
BREAKDOWN OF STATES AND THEIR EXISTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES