On July 27, 2025, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, sworn in the newly elected chairmen and councillors across Lagos State’s 20 local councils and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) following the July 12, 2025 elections. But many local councils in the state, if not virtually all, have no full executive committees to run the affairs of the councils, a critical component of grassroots governance.
Despite the democratic mandate conferred on July 27 2025, when they were sworn-in although with the subsequent directives by state leadership that council chairmen should not make any appointments except that of Chief of Staff, the delay in constituting executive council members, including supervisory councilors and secretaries, many stakeholders claimed, has stalled decision-making and service delivery at the local level, raising concerns about governance effectiveness and accountability in Africa’s largest urban state.
Some analysts argued that the councils not having supervisory councilors for environment contributed to the dirt that has taken over different parts of Lagos.
Worthy to mention is that the Local Government Administration Law 2025 provided for an Executive Committee for each local council in the state. The law stated that the executive committee for each of the council shall comprise the chairman, vice chairman, supervisors, special advisers, Secretary to the Local Government, council manager, council treasurer, and the Head of Legal Unit.
Section 6 of the law stipulated that any appointment, not recognised by the guidelines, local council bye-laws, or other relevant laws shall require the express approval of the Governor of Lagos State.
However, some stakeholders argued that the council chairmen have not made appointments based on directives. They alluded to the instruction the council chairmen got on the day they were sworn in. Speaking at the ceremony, Sanwo-Olu instructed the new chairmen and vice chairmen not to appoint secretaries to the local council, aides, or supervisor councillors until they get approval from the state government.
He, however, said that the chairmen could appoint a Chief of Staff to enable them hit the ground running as they assume office. And truly, many of council chairmen have only appointed Chief of Staff in compliance with the directive.
Commenting, a resident, John Adigun, said that it is a misnomer for a critical unit in governance delivery in any state would be left incapacitated without having the appropriate man power to drive its activities, especially in terms of policy formulation and execution.
“And this is happening when local councils are getting more money to execute programmes and projects. This is because the statistics from federal allocation to state and local council has doubled if not more than doubled. So, I hope whatever is the stumbling block will be removed for smooth and effective administration at the grassroots.”
However, a party man, who pleaded to be anonymous, disclosed that tension within the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state and 2027 interests are major factors why the council chairmen have not fully formed their executive committee by appointing aides, supervisors and secretary to the council.
According to him, the emergence of the elected council chairmen polarized the party greatly because of the allegations that some of the chairmen and councilors were imposed on party members and leaders. He said it was what informed why the governor instructed that the council chairmen not to make any appointments yet because the plan was to use the appointments to douse the tension and placate the leaders and aspirants that felt aggrieved.
He, however, said that the effort to ensure that the appointments do not lead to further polirisation of the party is why the list is still being compiled. He revealed that the Justice Forum and Mandate Group contest also contributed to the delay revealing that in the build up to 2027 elections, the two groups believed that to have an upper hand in case the party does not align with consensus candidates, the group in charge of majority in the council appointments will have the upper hand. He said that is also pushing a lot of pressure within the party.
He further said that in some cases, the infighting within the two major groups also contributes to the delay, mentioning that in Mushin Local Council, there is a contest among the Mandate Group on who should present the appointees zoned to them as there are two factions of Mandate Group.
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