AUSTIN OBOH
The issue of local government autonomy has been a source of much political and legal dispute since the return of democracy in 1999. Whereas the Federal Government is anxious to extricate local councils from the grip of state governors, the latter consider local council affairs part of its constitutional remit, and go as far as exercising control over their allocations, drawn from the federal government. Sometimes, governors’ arbitrary decisions on local government finances hamstring the administration of this third tier of government and renders it ineffective. Political pundits, it would seem, generally agree that local council administration would be more effective for grassroots development if state governors allow elected council officials free hand to run local governments and pursue their programmes without interferences from governors. State governors, however, are unwilling to let go the considerable benefits of local government control and now frequently dissolve elected councils and replace them with caretaker committees made up of their loyalists. This vexatious action is the crux of recent controversies concerning local government area administration.