As the National Assembly is set to review the 1999 Constitution, local government employees are agitating for autonomy for the councils. But governors are kicking against it on the ground that there is no third tier in federalism. Assistant Editor DADA ALADELOKUN examines the issues.
Local government autonomy is a critical issue that has polarised the polity, since the begining of the constitution review process. Council chairmen and employees are clamouring for the independence of the grassroots government. However, the governors have objected to the clamour, saying that there is no third tier in federalism. The governors are using the platform of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to articulate their views and resisit the push for constitutional autonomy for the fledgling councils.
Right from the days of the colonialists, apostles of local government administration had seen it as an enviable means of getting the dividends of governance to the doorsteps of locals. To them, both the federal and state government administrations lacked the structural capacity to satisfy the yearnings of the grassroots inhabitants without ado. Therefore, all through the past years to the days of Ibadan District Council, which came into being in 1954, to the era of the Ibadan Municipal Government (1957 – 1979), which showcased impressive grassroots administrations, especially in the Southwest, it was hearty applause for the tier.
Perhaps for the time-tested importance of the tier of government, spirited efforts were made to revitalise it at various times in the course of the nation’s chequered history. Outstanding among such attempts was the famous 1976 Local Government Reform.
The same conviction gave birth to the Political Bureau instituted in 1986 to, among other things, make the local government system deliver its anticipated inherent goodies. Before then, there existed the Dasuki Committee on Local Administration in Nigeria. Its sole aim was how to make the system effectual through improved finance and unbridled autonomy.
Convinced beyond doubt that the local government system was the surest purveyor of the dividends of government efforts to local inhabitants, the Ibrahim Babangida-led administration moved to consolidate it. Between May 1989 and September 1991, it created additional councils, raising the tally from 301 to 589.
Eight years later, the number rose to 774, including the six Area Councils at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). They have since been listed in the contentious 1999 Constitution currently undergoing overhaul.
A die-hard apostle of true federalism, former Lagos State Governor and national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Senator Bola Tinubu, actualised his belief in the efficacy of grassroots governance during his eight-year reign in the state. How? Enabled by Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, he created 37 Local Government Development Areas (LCDAs) to further take the fruits of governance to the doorsteps of the grassroots people. Though former President Olusegun Obasanjo did the titanic to scuttle the development, he failed to have a good dance. Till today, the LCDAs carved out of the original 20 councils are still waxing strong, springing forth appreciable service delivery.
Senator Smart Adeyemi averred last weekend that the opponents of local government administration in the country “are enemies of development.”
Oba Abdulfatai Oyeyinka Aromire, the Ojora of Ijoraland in Lagos State, lent his voice in support of Tinubu’s effort when he told The Nation: “Before Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into office, Lagos was at a standstill, but when he got there, he created more Local Council Development Authorities that have really helped Governor Babatunde Fashola to move the state forward.”
However, if asked for their candid verdict on the councils and their performance nationwide, most Nigerians – except perhaps the few beneficiaries of the perceived rots in the system – will score them abysmally low masks. For a medley of reasons, the critical roles assigned to the tier of government by the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution have not been well attended to.
While the office holders at the level are always quick to implicate inordinate control by the states and lack of adequate funds to effectively run the system, analysts would differ a bit. To majority of them, who often accuse the grassroots administrators of ineptitude and offensive misuse of resources, they also see them as being bereft of the sense of purpose, honesty and patriotism needed to run the affairs of Nigerians at the level to fructification.
With all these, it is not surprising that calls for either scrap or strengthen the local government system stood out among people’s demands when recently, consultations were made nationwide with the people by members of the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly in the constituencies.
Specifically, The Senate and House of Representatives had respectively set up committees to review the 1999 Constitution. Senate President David Mark, while setting up the 47-member Senate committee, had posed a number of questions thus: “How effective are the local government? Should they be made to function independently to the states? Is the Joint State/Local Government Account still necessary?
One of the stakeholders who expressed worry over the fate of the local government system,Dr. Ifeoluwa Arowosoge, is a member of the House of Representatives standing in for Ekiti South West, Ikere and Ise/Orun Federal Constituency. He had served as an elected chairman of the old Ekiti Southwest Council between 1991 and 1993.
The legislator bemoaned the ill-fate of the troubled tier in a chat with The Nation. “We cannot but review the constitution for the sake of our councils. They are now nothing but mere appendages of their various states to the detriment of grassroots people,” he said.
Underpinning his position, Arowosoge recalled his experience: “During our time, under Ibrahim Babangida, we enjoyed considerable autonomy and we had the free hand to appoint capable hands to work with us and for that, we made remarkable impacts on our people. Today, our councils have lost their so-called autonomy both economically, administratively as if the constitution is lame. Secondary school drop-outs are now councillors, and the councils now lack the wherewithal to embark on projects since the paltry sums they get from the states are barely sufficient to pay monthly staff emoluments let alone run the councils. Unless the constitution is amended to rescue the councils from the current shackles of bondage, the council will remain dysfunctional. I thank God it is under consideration in the current attempt to redeem the constitution.”
However, to Nwabueze Okafor, National President, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), all the new constitution under re-reconstruction needs to do is to ensure the autonomy of the their tier of government.
“The major problem of the local government system in the country is about the erosion of its autonomy. If the new constitution can make the local government autonomy an inviolate feature, the tier will be alive to it’s statutorily responsibility again,” Okafor said.
The rumour has been rife across the country that in the northern part of the country, the councils’ helmsmen only go to office on pay-day, share their allocations, go back home only to return for the unholy ritual the next month. This reporter drew the attention of a former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, to the insinuation. He was also asked to bare his mind on how he felt the ensuing new constitution should address the issue.
His reaction was vehement as he described the impression about the northern council bosses as erroneous. He explained: “It is completely wrong and unfair to say that it is only the northern council helmsmen that revel in sharing people’s resources at the level; it is a national problem. Across the whole country today, it is a story of stealing and non-performance at the local government level. It is the same sorry situation across councils in the country; no exception.”
“The main problem lies in the fact that the state governors have never given the operators of the local government system the free hand to perform in line with the provisions of the constitution. We are now faced with a situation whereby it is the governor that influences who become the chairmen of the councils, what to give them and how they are being run. This has not helped the system and its would-be beneficiaries. Therefore, we must see to a workable arrangement whereby the executives at the level are given the leeway to work within the purview of their statutory expectations,” Musa, who is also the national chairman of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), added.
To Chief Jide Awe, the chairman of ACN in Ekiti State, the new constitution being constructed must ensure the strengthening of the supervision of the local government system. Though my party has a stand on the issue, I have a personal opinion. My conviction is that no system is bad, but the operators’ disposition. Their attitude brought about people’s impression about the system. From the local government through the state to the federal government, there is no problem with the system at each level, it is the operators who often misbehave and mismanage the system.
“It is really disheartening the local government today has become a sharing centre of public funds. It is equally sad that both the political class at the local government level and the administrative staff are of the irritating opinion that the system offers them the opportunity to have their own share of the national cake. All that is done there is for them to share among themselves the resources that should be ploughed into providing basic amenities like water for the grassroots people because ideally, being the closest to the common people, the local government is supposed to cater for their basic needs. But the opposite is now the case.”
Tunde Buraimoh, a lawyer and former Chairman, Ojodu Local Government, Lagos State, is also of the view that the local government system deserves urgent turnaround across the country. “I was once in the saddle at the level and I know how it feels, not only as a ‘governor’ at the level but also as a resident. Therefore, I strongly feel that no stone should be left unturned in efforts to revamp the vital system. It is the tier of governance that feels the pulse of the commoners directly. It therefore goes without saying that the system must remain in sound health in all ramifications,” Buraimoh said.
Now, the question remains: will the new constitution bring sanity to the ailing grassroots administration in the country? Time will tell.
