A Profile of the Portfolio Councillor in Northern Nigeria
| Published date | 01 October 1965 |
| Date | 01 October 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1965.tb00655.x |
| Author | G. W. Fairholm |
A
Profile
of
the
Portfolio
Councillor
in
Northern
Nigeria
by G. W.
FAIRHOLM
THE
Northern
Region of Nigeria is playing an increasingly
important
role in
that
country's development
and,
at
the
local level, the most
important
men
in
the
North
are
the native
authority
portfolio councillors.
The
portfolio coun-
cillors
playa
key role in the planning
and
operation of the functional responsi-
bilities
of
local government.
The
direction
and
character
of
the
job
they are
building for themselves is forging the
character
of local public administration
in the
North.
Over
two-thirds of the land
area
of Nigeria
and
approximately sixty per
cent
of
its people
are
contained
within
the seventy-one native authorities of
the
Northern
Region.
The
native authorities, which are
the
principal
unit
of
local government,
are
administered in three ways - through
the
portfolio or
ministerial system,
through
the committee system, or through a single admin-
istrator.
Of
these the portfolio system is the most widely used, the others being
generally experimental. All
of
the largest
and
most
important
native authorities
follow
the
portfolio system.
Executive responsibility for conducting service programmes falls to the
portfolio councillor.
In
this role he assumes
both
policy-making
and
policy-
implementing activities. He sits on the council
of
the native
authority
as a
fully-Hedged voting
member
and
has administrative direction of the portfolio
of one or
more
functional
departments
of
the local government.
Portfolio councillors
are
selected, as
are
all councillors, by election, by
nomination or from traditional positions in the local jurisdiction.
The
tendency,
is to
draw
the portfolio councillor from traditional or
nominated
councillors
rather
than
from elected ones.
The
idea
of the portfolio councillor
can
be traced
far back into
the
cultural heritage
of
the
Fulani
leadership class in the
North
and
draws some
of
its prestige
and
status as an organizational form from this
historical factor.
The
total
number
of portfolio councillors varies.
There
are
from four to
fifteen in a native
authority
depending
upon
the size
and
scope
of
its operation
and
the degree
of
importance
attached
to traditional membership by the
individual native authority.
Personal
background
of
councillors
An analysis
of
the age, experience
and
qualifications
of
native
authority
councillors in
the
large
Northern
Emirates reveals certain general character-
istics. Native
authority
councillors
may
be selected from traditional ruling
families; nominated by
the
Regional Minister for Local
Governmentjt
or
elected.
The
elective principle is relatively new in
Northern
Nigeria
and
has not
Mr.
Fairholm, of the
Graduate
School of Public
and
International
Affairs
at
the University
of
Pittsburgh, is at present the Administrative
Management
Consultant
at
the Institute of
Administration,
Zaria,
Northern
Nigeria.
1Often the
candidate
is selected by the
native
authority
Council, itself,
and
merely
approved
by
the
Minister,
The
Minister
must
also approve all
traditional
members.
270
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