There has always been news in Nigeria where a governor or the state lawmakers suspend a local government council chairman or even outrightly sack the local government council chairman who has duly been elected by the electorate on grounds of gross misconduct.
The act of purporting to suspend or sack an elected official is quite new and fundamentally unknown to a democratic system of government around the world and the democratic system of government that Nigeria copied from the west therefore not properly copied right in this instance.
The constitutional issue that does spring off whenever there’s news of this kind of a local government council chairman being suspended or outrightly sacked is “whether an elected official can be suspended or sacked by the governor of a state or anybody working under the directives of the governor or even by the state house of assembly?”.
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I will not fail to make mention the fact that the Nigerian democratic system is quite unique; in Nigeria, there are three (so-called) regions or cadres of government; the federal, headed by an elected executive called the president, and the state, headed by the Mr governor and lastly the local government council headed by the chairman. Each of this level of government is to enjoy a great level of independence and autonomy from the other regions and that is how it has been structured to operate but according to s.7 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, the constitution has taken away some level of independence and autonomy that is to be enjoyed by the local government or regionally government and infused it on the state government.
Interestingly, in Nigeria and most countries of the world that are practicing the democratic system of government, there are two kinds of governmental officials; the ones appointed and the ones that are duly elected by the electorates. The ones appointed either at the state or federal level can be suspended or relieved of their duties by the master that appointed them at any given time without any bureaucratic restriction or protocol. An appointed official is only at that office at the pleasure of the master that appointed him and the master can suspend, sack, or replace him at any given time but as for an elected official, anybody who was and has been duly elected by the electorate enjoys some high level of political immunity and independence and can only be relieved of his duty through a political process known as impeachment or can be recalled by the electorate or can as well be sacked by the court. No other process other than these highlighted methods is a valid or legal way of removing an elected official in a democratic government in the strict sense of it.
This is how it should be or ought to be in Nigeria in terms of elected local government council chairmen and the power that has been given to the state government to suspend or fire a duly elected local government council chairman is quite gross and a fundamental departure from the federal and democratic system of government.
Local government councils in Nigeria are constitutionally provided for which are to be headed by chairmen who have been duly elected just like states of the federation are constitutionally provided for to be headed by the governor. Other higher executives or even lawmakers having the power to suspend, remove or sack an elected chairman makes a mockery of the independence or autonomy of that cadre of government and the independence of the person heading it.
This is one of the “whys” most of us have been raising our voices to the high heavens in loud cry to demand total autonomy and independence of the local government councils in Nigeria and to be fully recognized as an independent region of government; independent of the federal or the state government both in finance allocation, structure, governance, and administration.