The Ohafia branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has held its Law Week, with emphasis on local government autonomy, reports Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU.
Implementation of local government autonomy will boost governance at the grassroots. It will also ensure delivery of democracy dividends to citizens and generations yet unborn.
These were the views of participants at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ohafia Branch Law Week.
Speaking on the impact of financial autonomy for local governments, former NBA Second Vice-President Monday Onyekachi Ubani said the Federal Government’s recent moves in that direction were commendable.
NFIU directive
Ubani recalled the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit’s (NFIU’s) directive that from June 1, disbursements from the joint state and local government accounts, in relation to local government allocations, should be credited to local government accounts directly.
The NFIU directive also stopped the control of local government funds by states and limited cash withdrawals by local governments to N.5 million daily.
“This move is seen as the most radical in giving the local governments the needed power to manage their affairs and resources outside the states, which had hitherto treated local government funds as its own and had released paltry amounts to the councils.
“The decision has been widely lauded and seen as a way of ensuring the third tier of government lives up to its real constitutional roles as the tier of government nearest to the people and with constitutional capacity to attend to their basic needs.
“Simply put, local governments had been conquered estates of the states and their resources spent at the whims and caprices of the state governments who had perfected the art of rail-roading their hirelings to control those local governments on their behalf,” Ubani said.
Abuse of joint accounts
Ubani regretted that through joint accounts, states annexed local government funds, to the detriment of grassroots development.
“Through an ubiquitous state/local government joint account, the allocations for the local governments had been spent as the state governments deemed fit.
“This has grandly defeated the idea behind the third tier of government, as the local governments were reduced to mere appendages that satisfy the desires of the states and nothing more.
“But with the emphasis on financial autonomy by the present government through this NFIU directive, there is no doubt that the local governments will play more expansive and vital roles in the lives of the citizens if they manage the resources that accrue to them justly.
“There is no doubt that the bold decision of the NFIU is freeing the local governments from the stranglehold of the states and unleashing their real potentials on the populace, if the monster of corruption and fiscal brigandage is curbed with this new order.
“There is no doubt that this decisive impetus granted local governments by this government is going to initiate a regime of responsibility, which has been denied this vital tier of government for the greater parts of its existence,” Ubani said.
‘Councils as cashcows’
According to Ubani, before the directive, the local governments underwent “a macabre rape by politicians and sundry interests” in which they were seen as cashcows, while the people’s interests suffered.
He said: “Every month, humongous allocations were released to the local governments and these allocations are appropriated by the states through the notorious state/local government joint account and frittered away in reprehensible manners.
“Through a shambolic state electoral system, state governors effortlessly impose their lickspittle and feckless hirelings to control these local governments and these were often so powerless to ask questions about the resources of the local governments or challenge the governors to let free these resources.
“So, with this order, the local governments became more appendages of the state governments while the important roles they should play in the lives of the citizens and for which they were created were abandoned to rot.”
How it was foisted
Ubani said successive governments foisted the subjugation of local governments, with little done to address what he called a misnomer while it thrived.
“Yes, civil society organisations, local government workers and other motley interests have raised a weak call for the reversal of this order, but nothing substantial was done to correct this.
“The Obasanjo regime whelped in sterile helplessness that the local governments had become mere 774 stealing centers but that regime did nothing to correct this in its eight years in power.
“The Yar’adua government did not even betray any knowledge of the fact that the system was raped by states and their political actors at will.
“The Jonathan regime, notorious for its lack of will to even recognise the problems afflicting the nation it pretended to govern, showed no inkling that there was any problem with the local government system when he was moonlighting all over.
“At best, what happened was the raising of some splotches of noise here and there about local government autonomy and nothing more, as the system practically wobbled under the undue meddlesomeness of state governors,” he said.
NFIU directive not enough
Ubani hailed the new NFIU, but added that it was not enough. It must be built upon, he said.
He believes that if well enforced, the original purpose of local governments would be realised.
“There is no doubt that from the ashes of near-death, the local government is about to spring forth and take up its constitutional roles and be held accountable for its actions and inactions.
“This indeed is a laudable and far-reaching decision that will not only impact on governance but delivery of democracy dividends for the citizen.
“Generations yet unborn will relish this revolutionary action by the Buhari government which enriches the quest for restructuring more than the slanted political manipulations it had suffered in recent times.
“However, this new status calls for some follow-up actions and two of these actions stand out for their presumed impact in ensuring the ends of this radical decision are not defeated in the long run.
“One is on the quality and conduct of elections into local governments and the other is on the focusing of anti-corruption klieg lights on the local governments to ensure they conform to the noble intents behind this decision,” Ubani said.
‘INEC should conduct council elections’
Ubani said the practice of running local government without an elected executed must stop.
“On the conduct of local government elections, one is positively inclined to recommend that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) takes over the conduct of elections to local government councils from the state electoral committees who are merely inclined to ram in the cronies of state governors to control this vital tier through the shambolic and horrific elections they conduct to local councils.
“INEC should take over the conduct of local government election and streamline it with the national election calendar so there would be form and content to local government administration in line with the new lease of life it had been granted.
“Leaving the conduct of local government elections in the hands of state electoral commissions will wholly defeat the essence of the bold decision to grant financial autonomy to local governments for governors will merely railroad their cronies in as local government chairmen and in cahoots with them, fangle out ways of still controlling the purses of local governments,” the former NBA Ikeja Branch chairman said.
Tackle corruption
It is also necessary to ensure that council funds are not diverted or mismanaged.
“Equally important is the need for the various anti-corruption agencies to increase interests in local governments by closely monitoring their finances to ensure they are not frittered away by the helmsmen of these councils.
“Granted, a daily cash withdrawal limit has been set, but knowing Nigerian politicians for what they are, there is no gainsaying that they will device ingenious ways of short-circuiting the directive as well as other anti-corruption measures put in place, to drain the resources of the councils and leave us just at the macabre state the system is now.
“The anti-graft agencies will have to come closer to local councils and closely monitor their activities if the new policy is not to be frustrated by corrupt players at that level.
“One way to ensure probity and accountability is to ensure the publication of the monthly allocations for each local government council to enable citizens compare such with the service they receive from these councils.
“But let the anti-corruption agencies carry out regular swoops on the local councils to ensure they don’t become new drain pipes for the resources of the people,” Ubani said.
There should be no state interference
The keynote speaker, Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Law, Imo State University, Owerri, Prof. Uchefula Chukwumaeze, spoke on the topic: Local government In Nigeria: A political myth or constitutional reality?
According to him, local governments are designed to command separate and independent existence from the state governments.
He said: “Local Government in Nigeria is not an exception. As a constitutional reality, it must continue to develop till Nigeria reaches the El Dorado.
“There should be little or no interference by the state government in the control of local government councils in Nigeria.
“The issue of inter-transfer of fund from Federal Government to local government councils needs to be revisited.
“State-Local Government joint account should be canceled. Local government councils in Nigeria should be allowed by law to operate based on the peculiarities of individual local government council.”
Wanted: competitive councils
Chukwumaeze said there be should be specialisation in the delivery of social services by councils.
Besides, he said they should be rated based on rate of delivering social services to the people.
“Local governments should never be ruled by caretaker committees but by uninterrupted democratically elected executives as in the state and federal governments,” he said.
He observed that the local government areas are dead due to non-observance of the provisions of the Constitution by governors.
“Instead of democratically elected government officials as enjoined by the Constitution, the governors relish in appointing illegal Caretaker Committees who are stooges with whom they misappropriate the allocations to themselves to the detriment of the citizens.
“The high level of insecurity and crisis we experience today in the country is as a result of no economic activity at the local government level in Nigeria.
“The Constitution should give full tier status to the Local Governments and their elections conducted by the national electoral body other than the states’ electoral bodies,” Chukwumaeze said.
Former chairman NBA Aba Branch Chidozie Ogunji said the week’s theme was chosen due to the importance of local governments to development.
Other resource persons include NFIU Director/CEO Mr Modibbo Hamaan Tukur, who spoke on NFIU’s functions and objectives of the recent directives.
He was represented by the agency’s Legal Director Felix Obimalu.
The week featured conferment of awards on Chief Lucius Nwosu (SAN), Etigwe Uwa (SAN), Chief Umeh Kalu (SAN), Gregory Iyke Ibe, Dr Uche Uche Ohafia , Hon Uka Olu Agwu (posthumous) and Gregory Iyke Ibe.
The branch chairman, Dave Okwun-Kalu, said a communiqué would be sent to appropriate government agencies for implementation.
At the event were Justice A. U. Kalu, who stood in for the Chief Judge of Abia State, Justice C J Okereke and Justice C. Nwankwo of the Abia judiciary.
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