Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has declared that the newly enacted Lagos State Local Government Administration Law, 2025, aligns with constitutional principles and the Supreme Court’s ruling on term limits.

The new legislation, which repeals the 2015 Local Government Administration Law, introduces clear provisions on how the tenure of elected or successor chairmen is calculated, treating any period of succession or by-election as a full term.

While the repealed 2015 law provided for by-elections and vice-chairman succession in cases of vacancy, it was silent on whether such service periods should count as a full term, a situation that created room for manipulation, allowing individuals who completed part of another’s tenure to claim eligibility for two additional full terms.

However, the 2025 law declares any tenure completed via by-election or succession as a full term, a provision Falana said upheld the Supreme Court’s position in Marwa v. Nyako and reinforced democratic safeguards against perpetual rule.

Falana, in a legal appraisal of the law obtained by The PUNCH on Monday, stated that no local government chairman should spend more than two terms in office under any guise.

He described it as a progressive and constitutionally sound intervention that corrects several ambiguities in the repealed 2015 law and prevents tenure elongation by political officeholders at the grassroots level.

“The 2025 Law corrects this by explicitly stating that the completion of an unexpired term through election counts as a full term, in line with constitutional expectations and the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Marwa v. Nyako.

“This ensures that the democratic principle of term limits is respected at the local government level, just as it is at the state and federal levels,” he stated.

Falana applauded sections 27(5) and 28(4) of the Lagos LG law, which expressly states that anyone elected in a by-election or who takes over due to the death or impeachment of a chairman shall be deemed to have served a full term.

This, he said, puts an end to deliberate legal gaps that previously allowed some officeholders to serve beyond constitutional limits.

“The silence of the previous law again left room for manipulation by vice chairmen or placeholders who could serve out a term and still contest twice more,” he stated.