Legislation
| Date | 01 January 1961 |
| Published date | 01 January 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1961.tb01262.x |
Legislation
1.
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
EASTERN
REGION
OF
NIGERIA
Local
Government
Law No. 17
of
1960
THIS
repeals
and
replaces
the
Local
Government
Law
No. 26 of 1955 as
amended
since then.
The
1955
Law
itself replaced
Ordinance
No. 16
of
1950
which
was
the
first
of
the
modern
laws for local government in
the
African
territories.
The
same form has been retained
throughout
but
a few significant
changes of substance
have
been
made
in the course
of
the ten years.
Amulti-tier
structure
has become atwo-tier structure with municipal,
urban
county
and
county councils in
the
top-tier
and
in
the
lower-tier local councils.
Village councils which
have
been constituted
and
are
in existence
under
acustomary law
are
recognized
but
not
made
subject to
the
new
law, except
in so far as they
are
placed
under
a
duty
to
prevent
crime to
the
best
of
their
ability.
Only
councils in the top tier
are
rating
authorities
and
local councils
may
precept
upon
them.
The
downward precept which has caused so
much
difficulty has
been
abandoned.
The
office
of
President has
been
introduced. Apresident
may
be
appointed
by the minister by name, title or office
and
will hold
the
appointment
at
the
pleasure
of
the
Minister.
If
there is a president in a municipality, he will be
designated mayor, in which case the council will elect a
chairman
who will be
designated deputy-mayor
and
have
all the powers
of
a
chairman
under
the law.
It
may
be remembered
that
the
1950 ordinance in
the
first flush
of
enthu-
siasm
made
acomplete
break
between local authorities
and
the
central
administration. Experience proved
that
this
break
was too
sudden
and
so the
1955 law
brought
back the central administration in the guise
of
Local Govern-
ment
Commissioners.
These
have
been retained in the 1960 law.
The
provision for the external
audit
has
been
changed
in
one
important
respect.
The
auditor
is
not
now
bound
to
make
adirect surcharge himself,
immediately following his disallowance
of
an
item
of account.
He
can
delay it
pending
aministerial enquiry, if
the
minister thinks this necessary.
This
is a
more
flexible
arrangement
than
the
former
one
and
permits
some discretion.
There
is a special relief for officers who
can
avoid liability to surcharge if
they
can
prove
that
they acted in accordance
with
the terms of a resolution
of
the council
or on
the
written
instructions
of
asenior officer.
Many
territories
have
asimilar
provision
but
one,
at
least, has
had
to plug ahole in it by providing
that
liability
cannot
be avoided if
the
officer concerned knew
that
the
resolution or
instruction was unlawful.
A final
but
not
unimportant
point,
the
power
of
alocal
authority
to
order
strangers to leave its
area
has
been
removed.
Students
oflocal
government in Africa will be grateful to
the
Government
or
the
Eastern
Region for having
documented
the
development
of
local govern-
ment
in such
an
accessible form.
The
Eastern Region
and
the
Sudan
are
the
only
territories which comprise all types
of
local
authority
from municipal
61
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