Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T18:56:54.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Separation of Powers in Local Government in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

K. S. A. Ebeku
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In a democratic nation, local government is the government of the people, by the people and for the people at the grassroots levels. That is, the government nearest or closest to the people. It is at the level of local government that community action in respect of community development programmes is most effective; it is also the level where democratic processes and decision-making by consensus are traditionally entrenched; where rivalries and tensions are reduced to a minimum; where local resources and patriotism are easily called to the service of the community; and, very importantly, where the people are normally confident of effective control of their own government.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , Spring 1992 , pp. 43 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See Odenigwe, G. A. (ed.), A New System of Local Government, Lagos, 44Google Scholar.

2 Awolowo, Obafemi, Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution, Ibadan, 1966, 148–149Google Scholar.

3 See Foreword to the Guidelines for Local Government Reform, 1976Google Scholar.

4 City of Clinton v. Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad Co., 24 Iowa 455 (1868), emphasis supplied.Google Scholar

5 The status of local government in Nigeria was improved by provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1989 and the Local Government (Basic Constitutional and Transitional Provisions) Decree, 1989, (No. 15 of 1989).

6 Nwabueze, B. O., Federalism in Nigeria under the Presidential Constitution of Nigeria, London, 1983, 129Google Scholar. Cf. Adeniji Adele & Ors v. Governor of Lagos State, (1982) 3 N.C.L.R. 698 at 715per Adeoba, J.Google Scholar

7 See Wade, E. C. S. and Phillips, G. G., Constitutional and Administrative Law, London, 42Google Scholar.

8 See also ss. 4(6), 5(2) and 6(2) which contain similar provisions for a State.

9 Similar provisions apply to State Governors.

10 Op. cit., 47.

11 See Oluyede, , Nigerian Administative Law, Ibadan, 1988, 35–36Google Scholar. See also ss. 132 and 170 of the 1979 Constitution of Nigeria; Balarabe Musa v. Speaker Kaduna State House of Assembly & Ors, Suit No. KDH1/1981, cited in Oluyede, op. cit., 35Google Scholar; Shitta-Bey v. Federal Public Service Commission, (1981) 1 S.C. 40Google Scholar.

12 Op. cit., 128.

13 No. 4. of 1980.

14 S. 33(1).

15 S.33(4)(b).

16 Nwabueze, B. O., The Presidential Constitution of Nigeria, London, 1982, 32Google Scholar.

17 See s. 7 & Ch. VIII of the 1989 Constitution. See also Decree No. 15 of 1989.

18 See s. 14(3).

19 It seems the word “of” was intended.

20 See s. 22(2) of the Local Government (Basic Constitutional & Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Decree, 1991 (No. 10 of 1991) hereafter referred to as Decree No. 10 of 1991.

21 S. 22(3).

22 At 2.

23 At 3.

24 A bye-law is neither denned in Amendment No. 3 nor in any other recent Decree. But in the 1989 Constitution, bye-law is defined as “enactment of a local government council whose sources is a State law” (s. 329). Reading the recent Decrees, especially Amendment No. 3 as a whole, it is submitted that bye-law also means original law made by a local government council relating to any of the subjects it has competence to legislate upon.

25 S. 22F(3) of Amendment No. 3.

26 S. 22G of Amendment No. 3.

27 See Guidelines for Implementing the Local Government (Basic Constitutional and Transitional Provisions (Amendment) Decree, 1991, 1. para. a(v).

28 See Balarabe Musa v. Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, above. Curiously the courts refused to inquire into the constitutionality of the procedures followed by the defendants in this case.

29 See also s. 33 of the 1979 Constitution and s. 35 of the 1989 Constitution.

30 The Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria expressed a similar view in a press briefing in Lagos in 17 07, 1991.Google Scholar