President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate dissolution of Local Government caretaker committees nationwide because they are not legally recognized.

Consequently, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has been directed to request state governors operating caretaker committees at local government level to immediately disband such committees and restore democratically elected representatives.

According to Malami, caretaker committees were out rightly illegal and unconstitutional as they amount to a breach of the provisions of Section 7(1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

He described the dissolution of elected local government councils by some governors as unconstitutional, and violation of the Supreme Court judgment of 9th December, 2016 in the case of Governor of Ekiti State & others vs Prince Sanmi Olubunmo and thirteen others.

Identifying Oyo as one of the concerned states, Malami had placed such request on Governor Seyi Makinde in a letter dated 14 January, 2020, reference number HAGF/OYO/2020/Vol.I/I. entitled, “Unconstitutionality of Dissolution of Elected Local Government Councils and Appointment of the Caretaker Committee: The Urgent Need for Compliance with Extant Judicial Decisions”, addressed to the state Attorney-General, Professor Oyewo Oyelowo.

Malami in his letter said that the request was to uphold the rule of law and not to hinder the much-needed grassroots development at local government level.

Without doubt, there has been a gross abuse of the local government as a tier of government as most state governments try to administer them as a department of the state government structure.

Until recently, when local government funds were released directly to the 774 local governments account, their finances were being administered by the state governors from their different state secretariats. Contracts were being awarded for and on behalf of the local governments without the inputs of the elected representatives at the local government level. Such actions had limited the performances and relevance of the local government as a tier of government with many Nigerians questioning the rational for their existence.

A major impediment to the independence of the local governments in Nigeria is the mode and conduct of election into local government offices. The elections are often conducted by State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) which were tied to the apron string of the state government and invariably unable to exercise any independence in the conduct of election.

Often times, the party in power at the state level usually win all the local government elective positions. This has made the election to be uncompetitive and described as a charade. There has been a clamour that the Independent National Electoral Commission be made to conduct local government elections to restore electoral integrity. But this will need a constitutional amendment, though INEC itself is currently overburdened managing elections with huge number of political parties.

There is, however, a glimmer of hope as the Chairman INEC in the Senate, Senator Kabiru Gaya, said the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act may prescribe a four -year tenure for local government officials instead of the present three years, along with some other reforms.