LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE WEST REGION OF NIGERIA, 1950‐1955
| Author | R. E. Brown |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00111.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
]80
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN
THE
WEST
REGION
OF
NIGERIA,
1950-1955
By
R. E. Brown,
Permanent
Secretary
to
the
Ministry
of
Justice
and
Local
Government
Introduction
AN
account of local government in
the
Western Region of Nigeria under
the
Native
Authority
Ordinance (Cap. 140 of
the
Laws of Nigeria) was given
in an article which appeared in
the
Journal of African Administration of July,
1950. The constitutional changes of 1951 brought into power in this Region
an Action Group Government led by Chief (then Mr.) Obafemi Awolowo,
and
its first major piece of legislation was
the
Western Region Local Govern-
ment
Law, 1952, (No. 1 of 1953).
For
adescription of
the
law readers are
referred to
the
article in
the
Journal of African Administration of July, 1953
by
W. Fowler, Administrative Officer.
The
Region contains an estimated
population of 6,216,000 (1952 census). Lagos, which is now independent
Federal territory, is not included.
Mr. Awolowo was
the
first Minister of Local Government, being succeeded
in
October, 1954, when he became Premier, by Chief Rotimi Williams. In
June,
1953 a Ministry of Local Government was established with aPermanent
Secretary
at its head. Meanwhile, since
the
enactment of
the
law in February,
1953, enquiries
have
been held in
everyone
of
the
twenty-four divisions of
the
Region to ascertain
the
wishes of
the
inhabitants
as to
the
form of local
government desired. At
the
time of writing (May, 1955)
the
Local Government
Law has already been applied in
ten
divisions
and
by
the
beginning of October
will
have
been applied throughout
the
Region since all necessary Instruments
have now been approved by
the
Regional Authority. There will
then
be a
total
of twenty-one divisional councils, one hundred district councils (twenty-two
of
them
'all
purpose ')
and
ninety-five local councils. Additional local
-councils
may
be established
later
in areas already covered by district councils.
The
law provides for one-, two- or three-tier local government
at
divisional,
·district or local council level.
Instruments
so far approved
and
published
illustrate very clearly
that
the
law is most elastic in its application,
and
that
it
is resulting in a far from uniform
pattern
of local government. Such a situation
is to be expected, however, in a territory where modern ideas continually
require reconciling with tradition
and
local politics. In a given division there
may
be a
'weak'
divisional council
with'
strong'
district councils; there
may
be a .
strong'
divisional council with .
weak'
district councils; there
may
be one or
the
other of these combinations together with local councils;
there
may
even be an all-purpose district council. A small number of all-
purpose district councils
have
already been established namely,
Ibadan
(popu-
lation 745,448), Ogbomosho (population 194,716),
Two
(population 156,443),
Idanre
(population 30,341), Oka (population 28,524)
and
Ibarapa
(population
51,494).
The
first three of these are predominantly municipal areas,
and
the
last three rural areas. Sometimes district
and
local councils constitute
the
second
and
third
tiers;
in other cases
the
second tier consists of a district
·council in some
parts
of
the
division
and
local councils in others.
The
law provides
that
the
rating
authority
may
be either adivisional or
adistrict council, other councils associated with
the
rating
authority
being
-empowered to precept on it. At present an exaggerated prestige value is
.attached
to appointment as rating authority,
but
it is hoped
that
as
the
law
To continue reading
Request your trial