From
the information from the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, the administrative structure of the Nassarawa State government
comprises the Executive, Legislative and Judicial arms. The Executive
arm is headed by the Governor.
The
State Executive Council is made up of the Governor, his Deputy, the
Secretary to the state if government and all commissioners. They are
responsible for policy directives, implementation strategies and the
actual implementation for approved programmes and projects. Nassarawa
State currently has eleven ministries and eleven commissioners, who
are
the political heads of these ministries .
Some
of these ministries have parastatals under them. These are normally
headed by Permanent Secretaries or Directors and enjoy a reasonable
level of autonomy in terms of financial and administrative management in
order to facilitate programme effectiveness. The entire civil service
is under the control of the executive arm for the day to day and routine
administration the state.
The
Legislature, i.e. State House of Assembly, has twentytwo members. Its
leadership is made up of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the Clerk of
the House, Majority Leader, Minority Leader, and the Majority and
Minority Whips. It is responsible for making laws for the good
governance of the State and the supervision of the executive arm. The
Judiciary, on the other hand, is made up of the state High Court,
magistrate courts and area courts in the descending order. The Chief
Judge heads this arm of the government.
The
Local Governments in Nassarawa State are thirteen in number, and
provide the lower tier of government in the state. Each is headed by a
Chairman, a deputy Chairman and Councillors who are also democratically
elected. Indigenous traditional institutions of authority exist
alongside the state and local government councils.
They
also provide leadership and facilitate community administration
especially at the grassroots level. These are emirates, headed by Emirs
and Chiefdoms headed by other traditional rulers. The emirates are
Lafia, Keffi, and Nassarawa, headed by Emirs and they are all first
class Chiefs.
The
Andoma of Doma, the Aen Eggon of NassarawaEggon, the Chum Mada of
Akwanga, and the Osana of Keana are the other first class Chiefs in the
state. The Emir of Lafia is the Chairman of the Nassarawa State
Traditional Council, while the leading Chief in each local government
acts as the Chairman of the Local Traditional Council.