Constitutional Responsibility for Creating New Local Government Areas in Lagos State

Abstract

Bringing into existence through legislative process additional local government areas under the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 1999, has been a thorny issue generating unending controversies. The debate on whose responsibility it is,
between the federal government and the federating states—to bring into existence, new local government areas within the
territory of Nigeria as prescribed in the Constitution, has been as passionately conducted as it is contentious. There has been no
helping of the matter either, as a result of the seemingly ‘inchoate’ decision arrived at by the Supreme Court in the AGL v
AGF case, despite available clear constitutional provisions on the matter. This paper examines the responsibility for the creation of
a local government area from the point of view of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, especially at this period when some federating states in the country are variously warming up to embark on creation of local councils within the
geographical territory of such states. The paper therefore integrates elements from the theory of federalism and federal
government structure, the theory of separation of powers, and the theory of constitutional supremacy, to develop a theory that the constitutional responsibility for the creation of local government areas resides in the states which constitute the federating units.