Africa Press-Nigeria:
Nigeria has 774 local government areas. Each local government area is administered by a Local Government Council consisting of a chairmanwho is the Chief Executive of the LGA, and other elected members whoare referred to as Councillors.
Local authorities are multi-purpose bodies responsible for deliveringa broad range of services in relation to roads; traffic; planning; housing; economic and community development; environment, recreationand amenity services; fire services and maintaining the register of electors.
Local government is the closest tier of government to the people of Nigeria, yet the resident population in it is denied the benefits of its existence. The failure of local government in the area of service delivery over the years has made the citizens to loose faith and trust in local government administration as an institution in Nigeria.
However, local government’s inability to perform its constitutional
functions effectively has been blamed on lack of autonomy to operate as a third tier of government.
The issue of local government autonomy in Nigeria has become a
recurrent decimal in the political chessboard of our national
discourse. The 1976 local government reform by the then military Head of State General Olusegun Obasanjo administration was in order to positively affect the lives of all the citizens in the country.
The Obasanjo administration felt that for a country to have meaningful democracy, the grassroots must be democratized at the grassroots before handing over the country to civilian administration as the engine house of any democratic government.
The 1976 Local Government Reforms, was meant to make the councils to be the third tier of government and not an appendage of either of the two tiers of government or subjected to the whims and caprices of any other government; just the same way that the state government is autonomous from the federal government. Local government imeant to be autonomous from the state government. Successive administrations in the country have not given the local government the opportunity to operate independently as enshrined in the constitution.
Interestingly, all the gubernatorial aspirants that emerged as
candidates in their various parties like Senator Hope Uzodinma, former Governor Ikedi Ohakim, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume , Ugwumba Uche Nwosu and even my good friend Linus Okorie all promised to ensure and accord full scale autonomy to local government councils if elected.
At the end of the governorship election, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha was
declared winner against the popular candidature, Senator Hope
Uzodinma. After his inauguration as the governor he sacked the
chairmen and councillors elected on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) .
