Tag: Edo councils

It is slanderous to credit Edo State local governments’ legislative arms as the originators of creative lawmaking that makes the law an ass. Other states and even the federal government had achieved that distinction years ago. In recent weeks, however, Edo LGs have managed to give some oomph to disingenuous political engineering. Barely three days after the House of Assembly, on December 17 and by an undisputed majority, suspended for two months the state’s 18 local government chairmen for insubordination and refusal to be accountable, the victims got an Edo High Court injunction on December 20 against both the governor, Monday Okpebholo, and the legislature to desist from tampering with the running of the councils and removing any chairman. Nonsense, said the legislative councils of the LGs weeks later, there are many ways to skin a cat; and they promptly began impeaching the chairmen, one after the other, parallel to the court injunction.

Alarmed that the Edo State government appeared disinclined to obeying the court injunction, the chairmen coalesced their efforts and approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for relief from what they were certain was a budding All Progressives Congress (APC) tyranny. All the 18 chairmen, including Tom Obaseki, brother of the former governor, Godwin Obaseki, were elected in September 2023 on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform in a bitterly disputed election. Few states have so far been able to conduct free and fair local government elections. Despite being armed with Edo High Court and Federal High Court Abuja orders, the LG chairmen have still been unable to fend off the assault by the state’s legislature. Do they have an answer to the legislative councils’ actions? It is unlikely.

The buffeted chairmen, some of whom have out of desperation defected to the APC, may appear to have the 1999 Constitution (Section 20) on their side, especially in line with the opinion of the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, on the matter, but it is unclear whether they have the Edo State Local Government Law of 2000 on their side, Section 20(1)(b) of which was deployed by the former governor in similar circumstances to upend the LGs. Mr Fagbemi insists no governor has the power to remove council chairmen or dissolve the councils entirely. But the House of Assembly and the governor insist by virtue of Sections 4 and 7 of the same constitution that the chairmen were not removed but suspended in line with the House of Assembly oversight functions on the LGs. Until the courts decide how far anyone can go in dealing with the LGs, a process that promises to be long and arduous, the legislative councils will continue to spring their ingenuity on everyone.

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Beyond who is right or wrong, including whether any state can actually conduct a free and fair election at the LG level, it is clear that the problem of the councils is much more fundamental than it is generally viewed. Last year’s Supreme Court judgement granting the councils financial – not administrative – autonomy may have rubbed the governors the wrong way, with many of them fearing that the federal government was deliberately and mischievously setting the cat among the pigeons, but everything points to the fact that Nigeria’s dysfunctional constitution and political structure may in fact be responsible for the abnormality. In the First Republic, the federating regions ran far better organised and elected local government administrations. That fairly workable and acceptable structure was dismantled by military intrusions into politics and governance. Since then, no formula has seemed to work at the local government level, with more patches creating worse tear.

The problem is not Mr Okpebholo or even Mr Obaseki foisting 18 PDP LG chairmen on the state, or the alleged financial malfeasance of the chairmen, or the sometimes mysterious and facile decisions of the state courts, or the complicating judgement of the Supreme Court. The problem is the 1999 Constitution. It was unable to make up its mind how to seamlessly integrate the councils into the tiers of government, or defend them when the governors inevitably savage them. As the federation is currently structured, and the councils maladroitly integrated into the governance of states, it is unlikely that the anomalies perpetrated in the states against the councils will abate. Already, some states have found a way round the Supreme Court judgement on LG financial autonomy, and have conducted appallingly incompetent and self-serving LG polls to produce council puppets. They will do worse in the months and years ahead. The governors, it is obvious, have no patience with cohabiting with obstreperous or independently minded council chairmen. They can tolerate defiant councilors, but they will brook no opposition from any ambitious or ‘confident’ chairman.

President Bola Tinubu tried to pacify the governors when they visited him at home in last December, insisting that the administration was more interested in impactful governance at the grassroots level than instigating LGs against them. They heard him, and nodded in apparent agreement. But it was clear that they remained unconvinced. They will return to their states and turn on the screw a notch tighter, leaving the federal government and the Supreme Court wondering what next to do to salvage the castrated LGs. The federal government, through its anti-graft agencies, has threatened to prosecute LG chairmen who cannot account for their spending, and will probably go on to make scapegoats of a few dissembling council bosses. The effort may, however, be unsustainable, legally and constitutionally. Instead, let the Tinubu administration take another look at the structure of the federation, the so-called restructuring plan, and determine just how far they can ginger what is today a clearly anachronistic political system into morphing its way into the future.