No to LG caretaker committees

Last week the House of Representatives mandated its Committee on Justice to examine the legality of state government-appointed caretaker committees to run local government councils in this country and to advise on whether such committees should be entitled to receive and spend their respective local government’s monthly allocation from the Federation Account. The House took […]

Last week the House of Representatives mandated its Committee on Justice to examine the legality of state government-appointed caretaker committees to run local government councils in this country and to advise on whether such committees should be entitled to receive and spend their respective local government’s monthly allocation from the Federation Account. The House took the action following a motion sponsored by Mr. Afe Olowookere who noted the absence of democratically elected local government councils in many states of the federation. He said the institution of an amorphous system called caretaker committees in place of democratically elected local government councils is alien to the 1999 constitution.
We commend the boldness of the House in re-examining this issue, which has become a worrisome practice all over the country. Despite the widespread use of this system, the constitution does not recognise the place of caretaker committees in the administration of local governments. From a stopgap measure it has become the norm, as local government councils in most states are governed by caretaker committees most of the time.
Some states have gone for more than ten years without holding local government elections. Their regular plea is lack of funds to hold the elections. At other times they pretend to be busy amending the local government law, while at still other times they orchestrate frivolous litigation in the courts in order to delay the elections. The system of caretaker committees is quite convenient to state governors who appoint their cronies to run the local governments without having to go through elections. They also often withhold the funds due to these councils while the caretaker committees govern them. The appointed officials are powerless to complain when this happens.
The 1999 constitution explicitly stated that local government system must be democratic. Most state governments adhere to this provision in the breach. Elected local government councils are wantonly dissolved by state governments, sometimes before their tenure as provided in state law expires.
Justice Abdulfatal Lawal of the Lagos State High Court recently nullified the appointment of caretaker committees in the state, declaring it as illegal and unconstitutional.
The judge held that no governor was empowered by the constitution to take over the administration of local governments through sole administrators or caretaker committees. The court ruled that local governments could only be managed by democratically elected people and if the state House of Assembly should make any law validating sole administrators for local governments, such a law will be invalid and unconstitutional. Recently, an Onitsha-based human rights lawyer dragged Anambra State Governor Chief Willie Obiano to court seeking to stop him from undemocratically appointing local government transition or caretaker committees in the state.
While governance by democratically elected persons has operated at the federal and state levels virtually unhindered since this country returned to democratic rule in 1999, the same cannot be said for the third tier of government. At the slightest opportunity, state governors use various pretexts to sack or dissolve local governments and they refuse to conduct new elections for months or sometimes years on end. This practice has resulted in all kinds of problems for this tier of government. The fact that most council funds are withheld while the caretaker councils hold sway have truncated most development projects at that levels for most of the time. Besides, many state governors have worked to keep shortening the tenure of elected local councils. In some states it is as little as two years, which makes it virtually impossible even for the elected chairmen and councilors to settle down and undertake any meaningful projects.
It is in this wise that we encourage the House of Representatives to initiate far-reaching changes that will end the scourge of caretaker councils at the local government level once and for all. It is not enough to deny caretaker committees access to funds while these funds are kept and spent by state governments. This is exactly what the state governments want. Funds from the Federation Account should be denied to any state that does not democratize its local councils as required by the constitution.