October 20, 2024
By Samuel Ogunsona
The Lagos State House of Assembly is considering a bill to abolish the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state and replace them with Area Administrative Councils.
The LCDAs were created by President Bola Tinubu in 2003 when he was Governor of Lagos State.
The new bill proposes that each Area Administrative Council will be funded by the Local Government Area under which it falls.
According to the bill, the system of local governments will be controlled by democratic elections.
The bill also specifies that there shall be 20 Local Government Areas in the state, as outlined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
This development comes after the Supreme Court granted financial autonomy to the 774 local governments in Nigeria, stipulating that funds will only be released to local governments with democratically elected executive members.
“As from the commencement of this Law, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission shall conduct elections into the 20 Local Government Councils in the state as recognised by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered).
“The 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.
“There shall be 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.
However, the bill also stated the Executive Governor of the state shall have the authority to suspend any Chairman, Vice Chairman or elected/ appoint officials.
The Chairman of Odi Olowo/Ojuwoye LCDA, Rasak Ajala, who was present as a stakeholder at the event said the move would lead to underdevelopment in the grassroots.
He said, “Even with LCDAs, the money meant for a particular area would be shared by the main local government and the LCDAs, so changing them to development areas would have no effect.
“The Assembly should leverage on the powers conferred on them by Section 7 sub-section 1 of the Nigerian Constitution and allow the LCDAs to be,” he said.
Also, Oba Shotobi also insisted that the LCDAs were aiding developments at the grassroots level.
In his comments, Obanikoro faulted the Assembly for not giving the public hearing proper publicity, saying that the problems in the local governments were deep and profound.
“The public hearing is being done without due consultations. In a democratic setting, the people are more important. I can’t even see any leader of our party, the All Progressives Congress, here. What we enjoyed as local government chairmen are no longer there,” he said.
The bill states that each LGA has the power to delegate any of its functions to the Area Administrative Council falling within the territory of the LGA.
