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5 J. Afr. Admin. 133 (1953)
Lagos Town Council

handle is hein.journals/jrnlafa5 and id is 135 raw text is: LAGOS TOWN COUNCIL LAGOS TOWN COUNCIL A Note by the African Studies Branch. THE Lagos Town Council was reconstituted in 1950 as a fully elected body, the first of its kind in Nigeria. The town was divided into eight wards, each return- ing three Members on the basis of a universal franchise for adult men and women with a short residence qualification. The Council then elected its own Mayor. The newly elected Mayor started off with a high-sounding speech in which he called for hard work, honesty and sincerity of purpose, co-operation and above all, the urge to render selfless service to the community. That having been said, it seems that the Council, so far from surveying the field of its new responsibilities, at once fell a victim to the personal interests of its members. By 1952 there was evidence that the Lagos public were becoming heartily sick of their Council and the Government of Nigeria invited Mr. Bernard Storey, Town Clerk of Norwich to inquire whether the Lagos Town Council is failing or has failed to discharge its functions . . . in a manner conducive to the welfare of the town of Lagos, and, if so, in what respects .1 Mr. Storey found that it had failed on ten counts which may be grouped as follows. One related to a misconceived notion that the Council had been elected to rule rather than to administer the town. From this flowed the idea that the Mayor was the supreme executive. Three counts related to gross interference with the appointment of executive staff: of these, two occasions disclosed personal interest and the third was pure political jobbery. Two counts related to personal motives in the allocation of permits, three to failure to face responsibilities and one to the failure to form quorums at Committee meetings with the notable exception of the Establishment Committee. This sorry tale is unfolded in a Report which has all the greater impact on readers who are accustomed to understatement and quiet irony. But one may wonder if the Lagos public will be able to read between the lines and to draw all the inferences they should: for in the last resort they, as the electorate, must bear some share of the blame. It is refreshing to note that the five chief officers of the Council, one European and four African, come well out of the inquiry. In a situation that must have been most unpleasant for them, they carried on the services for which they were responsible, with integrity and as efficiently as their resources allowed. On publication of Mr. Storey's Report the Regional Authority dissolved the Council and replaced it with a Committee of Management composed of twelve members. This Committee will continue in office until the Council can be recon- stituted. The new Town Council Bill has already been published.2 Under this the Council is no longer to consist of a Mayor and twenty-four councillors elected from eight three-member wards, but is to consist of a President, eight traditional members and forty-one members elected from forty-one single-member wards. The first President is to be the Head of the House of Ado. His position will be mainly ceremonial and normally the meetings of the Council will be presided over by a business Chairman elected by the members from amongst themselves. The traditional members are to be elected by the Lagos Chiefs from amongst themselves 'Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Administration of Lagos Town Council, by B. Storey. 1953; Government Printer, Lagos; 2s. 6d. 'Bill for Lagos Local Government Law, 1953. Published in the Western Region of Nigeria Gazette, No. 6, Vol. 2, 19th February, 1953. 133

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