The local government system is at crossroads. Since the restoration of civil rule in 1999, it has been at the centre of acrimony between the federal and state governments. The 1999 Constitution is not clear on its status within the lopsided federal structure. There are 774 councils listed in the constitution. Their functions are critical to the welfare of the local areas. But, many of them are not living up to expectation as vehicles for effective grassroots democracy and development because they are handicapped by certain constraints which have retarded their growth. Apart from the lack of consensus on the status of the local government, there is no unified system. In some states, the elected council enjoys a three year-tenure. In others, chairmen and councillors are elected to serve for two years. Also, the debate for council autonomy has polarised the polity. The local government is a creation of the state government, but both federal and state governments flex muscles over the power of financial control. Can the local government be repositioned for effective service delivery at the grassroots? Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU revisits its prospects, constraints and critical areas requiring additional reforms.
It is the closest to the grassroots. But, in terms of service delivery, it has not sufficiently lived up to its billings as the beacon of hope for rural dwellers. Although local governments are created for the purpose of easy administration at the local area, many of them are always struggling to perform their statutory functions due to financial constraints. As the appendage of the state government, the structure is under-developed. Not only are councils performing below expectation across board, its prospects as an autonomous unit of administration is slim.
As stakeholders converge on the City Hall, Lagos today for a critical review of the local government system, the problems of the supposedly third tier of government are on the front burner. The theme of the workshop organised by the Lagos State Gubernatorial Advisory Council chaired by the foremost scholar, Prof. Adebayo Williams, is: ‘Reforming Local Council for service delivery’. Discusssions will focus on the public perception of councils in Lagos State, the role of the legislative arm of local goverment, management of public funds and expectations of Lagosians from local governments.
Expected at the workshop are council chairmen, their deputies, secretaries, council treasurers, managers and councillors.
There are puzzles: Why is the council underfunded? Why do state governments perceive the local government, not as a tier of government, but more or less an extension of the state ministries and departments at the local level? Why are structures for function performance weak at the council? Why is the impact of the local government not felt?
In the last 65 years, councils have operated under various nomenclatures as rural governments, urban councils, local authorities, district councils, town councils, local governments, municipal councils or local council development areas. Either under the military regime or civilian dispensation, local governments have always been relegated to the background.
A political scientist, Boniface Ayodele, described the local government as a victim of the lopsided federal arrangement. He recalled that while councils were grappling with challenges of growth in the First Republic under the regional arrangement, their challenges multiplied under the military rule, despite the reforms introduced by successive administrations. “The constitution has not specified that the council is a third tier, unlike what we have in India and other countries. Here, it appears that they mere local agencies of the state administration for the purpose of interface with the countryside”, he said.
Under the military regime, local governments were created by the Federal Government. In 1999, the existing 774 councils were listed in the constitution. Since then, it has been difficult for the state government to create additional councils. When new councils were created by the Lagos State Government through the instrumentality of the House of assembly, they were not listed in the constitution. The Supreme Court did not condemn the process. But, it pointed out that they were incohate.
Currently, money is allocated to the councils by the federal government from the Federation Account. This is irksome to the states, which is vested with the power to create or dissolve the councils under the constitution. Last year, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, called for the upgrading of the council into the third tier, based on the clamour for council autonomy by some stakeholders. But, pro-federalism crusaders opposed the suggestion, saying that only two tiers, a central government and states, which are coordinate with the central government as component units, constitute the making of a true federation.
There was future over the reduction of the tenure of the elected local government from three to two years by some governors. In some states, governors even indicated that they would appoint supervisors, advisers and other aides for new council chairmen. The channels for disbursing council funds have also become a bone of contention. When money is allocated to the councils, it does not go directly to the councils. It is deposited in the State/Local Government Joint Accounts (JAC). At the JAC Committee meeting, the council is a junior partner. There are allegations by local government workers that governors indulge in diverting council allocation through controversial deductions. The illegal deduction compelled President Goodluck Jonathan to suggest the separation of the State and Local Government Accounts. But, the move was criticised by the governors and their commissioners.
According to experts, the modern local government system is an engendered specie. Unlike the councils of pre and independence eras, local governments have grossly failed to generate employment. It has not stemmed the rural/ urban migration by youths due to the absence of economic, social and recreational facilities. Also, the council has become an avenue for private accumulation by elected chairmen and councillors.
According to the United Nation’s Office of Public Administration, local government is “a political sub-division of a nation or state, which is constituted by law and has substantial control of local affairs, including the powers to impose taxes or to exact labour for prescribed purposes. The governing body of such an entity is elected or otherwise locally selected”. But, renowned political scientist Prof. Godwin Odenigwe, pointed out that this grassroots structure is meaningful, if council really becomes the closest unit to the people in the true sense of the word. He argued that governance at local level means “communities and towns organised to maintain laws and order, provide some limited range of social services and public amenities and encourage the cooperation and participation of the inhabitants in joint endeavours towards the improvement of their living”.
The “1976 Guidelines for a reform of local government in Nigeria” defined local government as the “government at local level exercised through representative councils established by law to exercise specific powers within defined areas. These powers should give the council substantial control over affairs as well as the staff and institutional and financial powers to initiate and direct the provision of services and to determine and implement projects so as to complement the activities of the state and federal government in their areas and to ensure, through devolution of functions to these councils and through active participation of the people that local initiative and response to local needs and conditions are maximised” Justifying the need for a viable local government, the former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, the late Major General Sheu Musa Yar’Adua, submitted that, “if stability at the national level is to be guaranteed, a firm foundation for a rational government at the local level is imperative”.
Many analysts have noted that local government can be a solution to the participation crisis. It means an increase in the structures of participation and responsibility. However, this argument may be reduced to the elite’s cravings for more access to power and state resources.
The foundation of local government system was erected on the colonial policy of indirect rule by the British. Up came the Colonial Native Authorities in rudimentary forms from 1890s to 1930s. To rule the colonised tribes through the existing chiefs and community elders under the emerging system was cost-effective. The approach was very successful in the northern part of the country where subjects defer to their Emirs and chiefs in an atmosphere of stratification, and class and caste system. In the West, it was partially successful because the rulers’ actions were moderated by age-long checks and balance procedures, which prevented the exercise of absolute power. In the East, it was almost a failure. It was difficult to identify the traditional authorities in the essentially traditional kingless society Thus, chiefs-in-council was established in the 30s and 40s.
However, a university don, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, pointed out that the Native Authorities encountered a number of problems. The size of each native authority was small and its closed-door recruitment policy and lean resources made it difficult for them to attract qualified staff. There was no evidence that the Native Authorities, including the Sole native Authorities, Chief-In Council, Chief-and-Council and Federated Authorities, were democratic in nature. Thus, it was very difficult to evolve a common approach to local government development. Since the colonial masters appointed them, the participation of educated nationalists in those structures was delayed. Also, since they lacked trained staff, specialised functions, especially the provision of water supply and education, became difficult.
However, between 1950 and 1955, the trend changed. Elected councils emerged in Lagos, Eastern and Western Regions. The East set the pace, followed by the West in 1952, with the promulgation of the Local Government Law, which introduced a tier structure of democratic government in the council composed of 25 per cent of traditional rulers. In those early days, when illiterate traditional rulers and young educated nationalists cohabited as councillors, misunderstanding brewed between the two classes. These tensions found expression in the protracted crises between the late Chief Bode Thomas and the Alaafin of Oyo, the late Alhaji Adeniran Adeyemi 11 in Oyo Council and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the Akarigbo of Remoland, the late Oba Williams Adedoyin, in Remo Council.
Historically, it was the glorious era of council administration. The elected councils were given a measure of autonomy in financial and personal matters, and general administration. They had a wide range of functions, including primary education, health, police, and judiciary. In the West, council prisons also existed. To enhance performance, they had the power to levy education and general rates. In the North, the traditional rulers held sway for a longer period in the Native Authority, unlike in the South where the participation of educated citizens fostered pupilage in local administration. But in both North and South, corruption was rampant. Modern politicians who served as councillors, including Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Adegoke Adelabu, were even arraigned before authorities to render accounts as councillors and heads of councils.
Between 1960 and 1975, local government was on the decline in power and responsibility. Attention was focused on the federal, regional and state governments. In fact, local governments were reserved for failed House of Assembly and Representatives candidates. In the West, the new Local Government Law of 1960 abolished the council’s power to levy education and general levies. The grants promised by the regional government was not fully paid. Between 1964 and 1974, the local council in the country lost a number of major functions. These include local government police and prisons. In the East, councils lost power of control over primary education. The outbreak of the civil war also affected the operation of the local government system in the East. That was the situation until 1976 reforms which introduced the position of a ceremonial chairman working hollow along with the secretary, who was empowered as the chief executive. However, in 1989, presidential system was introduced at the local government, with the chairman becoming the chief executive presiding over an executive team of supervisors on one hand a team of councillors forming the legislative arm. Thus, there were checks and balances. The 2002 reforms undertaken by Obasanjo Administration more or less reinforced the 1976 input.
However, while it is stipulated in the 1999 Constitution that democratically elected local governments are fully guaranteed, nearly half of the 774 local governments sharing allocations from the federal treasury are administered by caretaker bodies set up by governors. The governors’ second term ambition always shape the council polls as they often make sure that those elected as chairmen and councillors are lackeys who would coordinate their battle for second term at the grassroots.
A sociologist, Prof. Peter Ekeh, highlighted many challenges confronting the local government system. The State University of New York, Buffalo, United States lecturer said that they are designed to “serve as receptacles of their allotted share of the largesse from petroleum oil revenues distributed from the Federation Account”. He frowned at the shrinkage of official responsibilities and lack of service-delivery culture, unlike the earlier era. Their viability, sustainability and survival are also in doubt. Ekeh observed that most local governments would collapse, if they do not receive regular allocations from the central government. Apart from under-funding, other challenges include identity and role crisis, constitutional crisis, poor administration, lack of economic viability, and inept council bureaucracy. However, none of these challenges invalidate the justification for grassroots government.
Former Secretary to Lagos State Government Olorunfunmi Basorun described the local government as the den of the deadwood. He lamented that some council engineers are mere technical employees. “Officers are ill-trained and there is lack of expertise. The councils are poorly managed, poorly monitored and poorly assessed,” he added. But, he conceded that if they are positioned for effective performance, they can satisfy local yearnings. “The federal and state governments are distant levels of administration, aptly insensitive to local concerns and expectations. It is the council government the people can call their own because it is expected that they should have more access to it. But, today, the functions of the council are hijacked by the federal and state governments in the areas of primary education refuse disposal and markets,” he stressed.
Local government scholars have evolved three approaches for the study of the local government system.
The exponents of “Democracy and Accountability School of Local Government” perceive the local government system in its democratic character. To them, procedures in it should be open, transparent, verifiable, result-oriented and accountable. Local government is viewed as a training ground for political leaders. Thus, it is believed that career politicians can use the local government as a lever for acquiring political training and leadership qualities by first contesting as councillors at the local government area. That scope of apprenticeship may have been widened with the introduction of presidential system at the council level. The implication is that councillors who have been exposed to the ‘know how’ of law making at the council level may proceed to the Houses of Assembly, Representatives and Senate. Lord James Bryce, who is a supporter of this school of thought, had this in mind when he remarked that local government is that school of democracy and the best guarantee for its success is the practice of local self-government.
In the same vein, John Stuat Mill declared that local government is one of the free institutions which provide political education, especially the public education of citizens using the instrumentality of the council administration. This political education induces participation in the council affairs by people who are remote from the state and federal governments.
Related to the democracy school of thought is the “Accountability and Control School of Thought”. When locals file out to cast their votes for the chairmen and councillors, they are participating in council affairs. It is incumbent on the local electors to elect men of proven ability, intellect and competence. If they elect the right people, there will be development in the council. If they elect fraudsters, they suffer under-development. How to use the voting right effectively as a weapon of choice, change and rejection of leadership is the sole pre-occupation of this school of thought. It is a free choice with lots of implications for the citizens and the local polity. For example, if corrupt men and women are elected, they will drain the council treasury. Ajayi said: “If inexperienced people are elected, they will hinge their lack of performance on learning on the job. If competent people and men and women of honour and integrity are elected, they will deliver the dividends of democracy to the people”.
The third is the “Responsibility School of Thought”. As a structure very close to the locality, local councils should serve as essential instrument for the performance of basic services, which could be best administered locally, based on the intimate knowledge of the needs, conditions and peculiarities of the areas concerned. Among these are chieftaincy, marriage, markets, local schools, primary health care and refuse disposal. Owing to lack of expertise, working tools and enormity of the challenge, refuse disposal and construction of markets, have been taken over by some state governments.
However, Prof. Ekeh attested to other specialised functions of the councils, which account for its peculiarity. These include sanitary inspection, town planning, water supply and market management by Town Councils, and local security, which is now prohibited by the constitution. Before their derailment, old town and city councils performed these functions creditably and with minimum difficulties. “The personnel of such high profile town governments as Lagos Town Council rivaled that of the Central Government in the quality of employees they attracted. Thus, such giants in the history of Nigerian public service as Dr Ladipo Oluwole and Chief Adegbeji Salubi were employees of the Lagos Town Council in the 1930s and 1940s.
The three schools provide a further linkage of ideas. The people elect, retain and fire councillors and chairmen, thereby giving expressions to the democratic character of the councils. The elected men perform clearly stated functions and they should be accountable. This makes them, to earn the respect of the local polity which may decide to send them to the state or federal in furtherance of their services to the people.
How are operative content accorded these linkages? The democratic foundation of the councils in this dispensation is doubtful. Ayodele pointed out that councils have become working tools in the hands of ambitious political leaders. Since chairmanship and councillorship candidates run on the platforms of competing political parties for elections, there is the tendency to impose them on the councils. Thus, those invariably elected are the candidates of political barons and godfathers, and not essentially the candidates of the people. As bastions of corruption, councils have often disappointed the people by their sheer ineptitude and lack of initiative. Council chairmen are usually overwhelmed by the resources at their disposal, although the funds are not enough, if they are development-conscious. To buttress this, a report by the Jide Jimoh House of Assembly Committee on Local Government Appropriation in Lagos State had harsh words for many council chairmen, who demonstrated lack of competence, to the detriment of the people they were elected to serve.
Experts who have lamented the window-dressing approach to council administration stressed that the love of money, rather than the desire to serve, has been the motivation for jostling for chairmanship and councillorship seats at the councils. The poor quality of budgeting and project implementation by the councils attest to the poor standard of the councils across the country. Many chairmen and councillors lack the training to know these technicalities.
While on tour of the Lagos councils, following his assumption of office in 2007, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), was confronted by the rot in many council areas. Frowning at the ineptitude, he suggested some targets, which he said the chairmen should aspire to meet so that they could deliver dividends of democracy to the people.
Many have argued that the internalisation of service-delivery orientation could prepare council operators for higher tasks at state and federal levels. This is why local government is viewed as a training ground for political leaders. A career politician is expected to use the lowest tier, or the third tier, as a lever for acquiring political training and leadership qualities by first contesting as councillors.
In this regard, Lagos councils have served as training grounds for future leaders at regional, state and federal levels. They include Chief Rotimi Williams, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, the late Chief Mumuni Adio Badmus, Chief Ganiyu Dawodu, Chief Enoch Ajiboso, Chief Lanre Rasaq, Dr Tola Kasali, Hon. Toyin Hamzat, Hon. Sesan Olanrewaju, Senator Adekunle Muse and Senator Ganiyu Solomon. In the earlier dispensation, the late Awolowo, Bello, Ajasin, Chief Bode Thomas, Mazi Nbonu Ojike, Adegoke Adelabu, and Alhaji Shetima Ali Mongonu began their elective political careers as councillors. That was the bright side of the earlier councils.
As elected agencies of the people, councils must be accountable to the people, who must continue to wield control over their functionaries. If corrupt men and women are not elected as chairmen and councillors, many corrupt politicians would be prevented from climbing the hierarchy of government at state and federal levels.
However, the hands of the state governors have been heavy on the councils.
The governors always postpone local government elections. Since the law says there should be elected councils, it is illegal to postpone it or refuse to hold it on time. Also, since it is the governor that will constitute the local government electoral commission, council elections are held in an atmosphere of minimal electoral reforms, making the opposition parties to be edged out of the local electoral process.
The first step in decentralisation of power, for the pupose of reaching out to the rural areas and connecting the countryside with the state and federal government, is through the local government system.
Since the localities differ across the diverse country, the peculiarities come to the fore through the sheer performance of those critical local functions dictated by local interest.
In this regard, five important factors cannot be compromised:
• For local government to bring itself nearer to the people, the people must have input into the policy formulation and decision – making process at all times, either directly or through their representatives in the local legislature.
• Local government reflects the character of self-government when indigenes and residents participate directly its administration, composition of functionaries, and general staffing.
• Wider participation of the people in the affairs of the council should foster a sense of belonging.
• Local government should encourage initiatives and development of leadership potentials from the grassroots. To that extent, it can become a training ground for future state and national leaders.
• Local government can serve as a link or channel of communication between local communities and central authorities.
The functions of local governments are not statutorily delegated by either the state or federal governments. However, there are instances where states and federal governments can collabotarate with councils in solving some probles facing some communities.
The functions of local government as spelt out in Section 7(5) of the constitution is as follows:
• Consideration and making of recommendations to the state commission on economic planning or any similar body on economic development of the state, particularly sin so far as the area of authority of the council and of the state are affected;
• Collection of rates, radio and television licenses;
• Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitudes;
• Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheel barrows and carts;
• Establishment, maintenance and regulation of markets, motor parks and public conveniences;
• Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, drains, and public highways, parks, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the House of Assembly of a state;
• Naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses;
• Provision and maintenance of public conveniences and refuse disposal;
• Registration of births, deaths and marriages;
• Assessment of privately-owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a state, and
• Control and regulation of out-door advertising and hoarding, movement and keeping of pets of all dispensations, shops and kiosks, restaurants and other places for sale of food to the public and laundries.
In addition, local governments are also expected to work hand in hand on the provision and maintenance of primary education, development of agriculture and natural resources and provision and maintenance of health services.
Instead of performing these functions, many local government chairmen nowadays neglect them and engage in dubious empowerment programmes to cover up their non-performance of these constitutional roles.
Questions have however, been raised about the economic viability of the councils. This is debatable. Some local governments in the urban centres have capacity to generate substantial internally generated revenue that can assist them in the discharge of their developmental functions. In the same vein, there are councils in remotest parts of the country with little or nothing to fall back to, except the federal allocation.
Nigeria is a federal state. According to Prof. K. C. Wheare, federalism connotes “the method of dividing powers so that “general” and “regional” governments are each, within a sphere, c0-ordinate and independent”. This universally accepted proposition presupposes that, in federalism, only two centres of authority; the central and state governments, are recognised. Therefore, labeling the council as another tier of government is contentious. It must be assumed that the abuse of the powers of control over the councils by the state and federal government compelled the agitation for an increased autonomy for councils.
Crisis between state and local governments permeate the inter-governmental relationship. Across the federation, between 2007 and 2006, council chairmen and governors were at loggerheads over illegal deduction of council funds by the states, with governors threatening to sack chairmen who raised serious objection. For example, former Ekiti Central local government chairman, Hon. Taye Fasubaa, cried out that he was being victimised for objecting to the diversion of council funds and illegal deductions by the governor. In 2012, when President Jonathan suggested that the Joint State/Council Account (JAC) should be abrogated and local governments should receive its allocations directly from the federal purse without recourse to the governors, the suggestion did not go down well with the councils.
In recent times, chairmen whose name have appeared in the black book of the governors forfeited their offices through the dissolution of the councils, in active connivance with the Houses of Assembly.
In Ibarapa local government, former Governor Rashidi Ladoja delayed the swearing-in of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) council chairman, who defeated the candidate of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the poll. In fact, in some states in the Southeast, Southsouth, Southwest, and Northcentral, governors have resisted attempts to hold council elections, to the consternation of anxious aspirants.
Local governments are also oppressed by the Federal Government. This suppression preceded the current democratic dispensation. In consonance with its centrist approach, the Abacha Administration dazed the country when he appointed a minister of local government.
The 1999 Constitution, which is the legacy of Abdulsalami Administration, also created friction between the federal and state governments over the control of the local governments. The federal government insisted that states lacked the power to create more councils belong to it, claiming that all the councils have already been listed in the constitution. Former Katsina State Governor Umaru Yar’Adua, who later became President of Nigeria, had to retrace his steps by axing the newly created councils in the state, out of fear. Actually, the power to create councils in Section 8(3) is vested in the House of Assembly. But Section 8(6) gives the power to ratify the creation and list newly created councils to the National Assembly. Many are clamouring for the review of the constitution to clear this area of friction.
In Lagos State, Tinubu Administration created additional 37 local councils. Despite the fact that they were created by legitimate state authorities, the Federal Government disagreed. The allocations due to the pre-existing 20 local governments were seized by the Obasanjo Administration. Also, the Senate refused to list the new councils in the constitution, despite the referendum that gave their creation the nod.
In fact, in a memo to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who had earlier directed that the withheld allocations should be released, the Ministry of Justice advised him to terminate the newly created councils, saying that they were undermining the judiciary and challenging the authority of the federal government. Irked by the incessant harassment, House of Representatives member, James Faleke, former chairman of one of the councils not listed; Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA); said: “The victimisation of Lagos councils by the federal government undermines the right of Lagosians to development”.
How have the existing councils fared nationwide? Have they justified the people’s confidence? In Lagos, the House of Assembly members were still inundated with complaints during the town hall meetings that many chairmen showcased cosmetic achievements.
One of the bane of the councils is the bloated
