The last is yet to be heard concerning the recent Supreme Court judgment, which granted autonomy to local councils as 489 local governments
• ‘Illegal’ LGs received N1.68tr between June 2023 and May 2024• ‘National Assembly will ensure INEC conducts LG elections’
Local councils have come under severe criticism for their lack of performance because of the undue influence of state governors on the third tier of government. The Guardian investigation revealed that while some states like Anambra had not conducted local council elections since 2014, Zamfara , Enugu , Abia , Jigawa, which ended the tenure of its council officials, had fixed June 2025 for another election.
The tenure of council officials elected in February 2022 in Enugu State expired in February this year. The councils are currently run by Heads of Personnel Management. October 5 has been fixed for a fresh election. Delta State narrowly escaped being affected by the judgment because it held its local council election on Saturday. In Akwa Ibom, the transition committee that took charge of its LGs administration fixed October this year for the election.
In the Northeast, Bauchi is the only state without democratically elected LGs. Since August 3, 2023 caretaker committees have governed local councils. The state government fixed August 17, 2024 for another election. Adamawa conducted local council elections on Saturday while Borno had its poll in January this year.
As the closest level of government to people in the federation, the 4th Schedule of the 1999 Constitution listed some of the functions of the local government as: “collection of rates, radio and television licences; establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitute or infirm; licensing of bicycles, trucks , canoes, wheelbarrows and carts; establishment, maintenance and regulation of slaughterhouses, slaughter slabs, markets, motor parks and public...
The management of refuse has ceased to be the responsibility of local governments in states. Lagos State Waste Management Authority is in charge of refuse management in the state. Similar outfits are Oyo State Waste Management Authority , Rivers State Waste Management Agency and Delta State Waste Management Board, Kano State’s Refuse Management and Sanitation Board , and the Enugu State Waste Management Authority.
Shittu also argued that allowing INEC to conduct council elections will not erode the true federalism most Nigerians yearn for. He said if Nigeria can have a unified police and military, there is nothing wrong with having a unified council election. He said: “Over the years, successful governors have hijacked everything belonging to the local governments. The LGs have become mere appendages of the office of the governors being supervised by the Commissioner for Local Government. This has been stopped by the judgment.”
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