In a move to strengthen local government administration in Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, has called for the scrapping of State Electoral Commissions, which he described as the main impediments to the development of local governments.
Fagbemi made the remarks during a one-day “Discourse on National Nigeria’s Security Challenges and Good Governance At the Local Government Levels” organized by the House of Representatives in Abuja on Monday.
According to the Attorney General, governors have exploited the inadequacies and loopholes in the 1999 Constitution to undermine and render local governments redundant. He accused the governors of abusing the rights of local governments and depriving people at the grassroots the opportunity to feel their presence.
Fagbemi noted that the most prominent abuse of local government was the use of state electoral commissions to impose leaders at the local government levels through sham elections, while most governors only appoint caretaker leadership in their local governments.
“To achieve this, many experts have proposed that there is need for the scrapping of the state independent electoral commission. Their functions and powers should be transferred to the independent national electoral commission because the state independent electoral commission remain an appendage to every incumbent governor. This is perceived as the root cause of the problem of local government administration in Nigeria,” Fagbemi said.
The Minister of Justice also called for a robust constitutional amendment that will remove all encumbrances hindering the development of local governments and their ability to fulfill their constitutionally recognized functions.
Fagbemi’s comments come after he filed a suit against governors at the Supreme Court, on behalf of the Federal Government, asking the court to stop the remitting of local government funds to states and to stop the 36 state governments from the disbandment of elected local government chairmen and replacing them with caretaker committees.
