Sanwolu to dissolve controversial 37 LCDAs illegally created by Tinubu as Lagos state governor
The Lagos State House of Assembly is set to dissolve the current 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state and replace them with Administrative Areas.
This is contained in a Bill for a Law to provide for the Local Government’s System, Establishment, And Administration And to Consolidate All Laws On Local Government Administration And Connected Purposes, which went through a public hearing on Thursday, 17 October 2024.
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 to the 774 local governments in the country by the Supreme Court, which specified that money would not be released to any local government that 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 recognized 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 an Area Administrative Secretary, who shall be appointed by the Governor subject to the confirmation of the HouseHouse.
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.
It will be recalled that president Tinubu created additional 37 Local Government Development Areas as Lagos state governor but the then federal government under Obasanjo refused to recognize it.
Obasanjo described the 37 LCDAs as illegal and for several months withheld the monthly federal allocation accurable to Lagos state.
The additional development areas caused a lot of bad blood and acrimony between Lagos state and the federal government.
The restoration of the allocation was done after Obasanjo left office in 2003.
