Who’ll Save LGAs from Governors’ Stranglehold?

IN THE ARENA

Since 1999, all the attempts to grant autonomy to the local governments through constitutional amendments have always been thwarted by state governors, leaving the entire system of the third tier of government in their chokehold, writes Wale Igbintade

A recent revelation that 313 out of the 774 local government areas (LGAs) in the country are still being run by sole administrators or caretaker committees instead of elected officials has shown that actualising local government autonomy in Nigeria is still a mirage.

Of the 774 LGAs in the country, 461 are currently being run by elected officials, while 313 others are run by sole administrators or caretaker committees. The 461 elected local government chairmen are spread across 20 states out of the 36 states of the federation. 

The states with elected council officials are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Delta, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Jigawa, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Taraba and Rivers.

Local government as the third tier of government in Nigeria is the closest arm of government to the people. Its mandate is to take development to the local areas. 

But since democracy was restored in the country in 1999, local government administration has been hijacked by state governments. Governors do not only choose their cronies to administer the local governments, they also dictate how their finances, especially allocations from the Federation Account, should be utilised. The practice cuts across political parties with a predominant number of state governments regarding the third tier of government as mere administrative appendages placed under commissioners for local governments and chieftaincy matters.

This has caused the third tier of government to lose its financial independence, as well as operational autonomy, thus rendering them redundant and incapable of rendering even the simplest of social services to the grassroots. The situation is said to be a major reason for under-development at the local government level.

Many observers have wondered if the state governors would ever allow the policy to work considering their firm control of the councils and the huge money they get from them as slush funds. They also wondered if the governors would not devise another strategy to circumvent or thwart the policy.

Some of the states where there are currently elected officials running the local governments conducted the local government elections when the governors were leaving office. For over seven years while they were in office, they ran the system with sole administrators and caretaker committees.

Even in states where there are elected officials, the stories are the same – they are not given the free hands to run their affairs. In states where Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) are created from local government areas, the federal allocations of such local governments are spread and shared with the LCDAs to run their affairs, thereby shortchanging the local governments.

Section 7(1) of the Constitution specifically states: “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is, under this constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the government of every state shall subject to section 8 of this constitution, ensure their existence under a law which provides for the establishment, structure, finance and functions of such councils.”

But since 1999, all attempts to grant autonomy to the local governments through constitutional amendments have always been thwarted by governors. Even several courts, including the Supreme Court, have tried to intervene on several occasions on the overbearing attitude of the governors on the local governments to no avail. Not only that elections not conducted, chairmen and councillors frequently removed at will, while sole administrators and caretaker committees are frequently appointed to run their affairs all because of their revenue.

THISDAY gathered that it was against this background that the federal government, alarmed by the continuous misuse of cash allocated to local councils across the country by state governments through the State Joint Local Government Accounts (SJLGA), outlawed the meddling of states in council allocations via the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), which was excised from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

However, as lofty the NFIU guidelines were, many believed it had to surmount a legal hurdle as Section 162 (8) of the 1999 Constitution empowers the states to distribute allocation to councils “among the local government councils of that state on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of the state.”

Many stakeholders have been calling for a review of the constitution to strengthen the autonomy of local councils, but progress has been slow, as many state governors resist the efforts to reform the system.

But to address the challenge, the National Assembly proposed a bill to abolish the state joint local government account and provide for a special account where all allocations due to the local government councils, from the federation account and state government, shall be paid.

In the bill, each local government council was to create and maintain its own special account to be called the Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.

The legislation also mandated each state to pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its internally generated revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly.

However, late last year, it emerged that 20 out of the 36 state Houses of Assembly in the country rejected the bill, falling short of the required 24 votes among the 44 transmitted bills.

In May 2019, NFIU issued some guidelines to guard against the overbearing influence of state governments in the administration of local governments’ monthly allocations. The agency also threatened to deal with individuals and companies abetting the diversion of local government funds with local and international sanctions. The guidelines also reduced cash withdrawal from local government accounts to N500,000 daily.

But the 36 state governors saw the decision as an encroachment and challenged the decision at the Federal High Court in Abuja which in a judgement threw out a suit. Yet, it still does not stop them tampering with the funds.

So bad has the situation become that last Friday, the Senate asked the federal government to stop the statutory allocation of funds to local government councils whose chairpersons are not democratically-elected.

The resolution followed a motion by the Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, during the plenary on Friday. He said the development was against the constitution.

Moro complained that some state governors dissolved elected local government officials and replaced them with caretaker committees at will. He therefore urged members of the upper chamber to condemn the use of caretaker chairpersons as administrators of local governments.

The majority of the senators supported the motion when it was put to debate.