As part of a deliberate move to wrest the control of local government areas from state governors, the Senate has introduced a bill to establish Local Government Independent Electoral Commission.
The bill, which passed its first reading on Thursday in Abuja, was sponsored by the Chairman, of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Sani Musa (APC, Niger-East).
It is called the “Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024.”
It came on the heels of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court granting full financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils in the country.
The apex court abolished the controversial state/local government joint account into which funds for the second and third tiers of government were paid before the judgment.
It also directed that henceforth, funds should only be paid to local government councils with democratically-elected officials running their affairs.
Following the court’s intervention, there has been increasing clamor for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to assume the responsibility of conducting local government council polls.
At the moment, each state has its electoral commission, which is in charge of conducting council elections for the state.
There have been cries of lack of credibility in the polls conducted by the state electoral bodies, as the elections are almost always won by the candidates of the party in control of the state.
Besides, many local government councils are also run by caretaker committees appointed by the governors, who renew their tenures every two or three years, depending on the provisions of the enabling state Assembly laws.
Findings by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that about 21 out of the 36 states of the Federation run their local government councils through caretaker committees.
However, rather than yield to the clamor for INEC to assume the role of conducting local council polls, the Senate, on Thursday, pushed for the creation of another independent commission to do the work.
The bill is awaiting debate on its general principles and possible second and third readings.
