By A. Ujo
profujo@yahoo.com * 08037023726
Blueprint newspaper of Tuesday April 29, 2014 reported the recommendation for the scrapping of all the 774 local government councils by the Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government of National Conference. While the recommendation was a major victory for state governors who have informally whittled down the powers of local government councils, it was a big shock to workers in the local government councils, especially the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) which mobilized its members and organized protests to the National Judicial Institute, Secretariat of the National Conference.
The genesis of the conflict between governors and local government workers could be traced to 1999 Constitution which gives local government councils quasi autonomy. Chapter I Part I (2) states that “Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of states and Federal Capital Territory”. All the 36 states were listed in 3(I) Part I (b); also, the Constitution recognized all local government areas and listed them with the Six Area Councils of FCT in Part I of the First Schedule.
In terms of distribution of powers, Chapter I Part I 5(2) vested powers (over local government councils) in the Governor. Second Schedule Part I listed 68 items on the Exclusive list which the Federal Government can make laws on. Part II of the same Schedule listed 30 items on the Concurrent list which Federal and State Governments can make laws on.
The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution listed 27 functions – 1(a) – (i)-(vi) and 2(a)-(d) to local government councils.
The State Independent Electoral Commissions were created by the Constitution to conduct elections for chairmen and councillors of local government councils. They are composed and funded by the state government.
The intention of the Constitution is to make a local government council autonomous in specific functional areas. At the same time certain institutional arrangements prevent local government councils from realizing these objectives.
The First challenge relates to the election of chairmen and councillors which is conducted by the SIECs. A governor decides when elections are held as he has to provide the money for the exercise. As leader of the ruling party, the governor decides who is to be a candidate in the elections which were manipulated. Governors abuse this power during the Fourth Republic (1999-2014) as local government elections were compromised and elections were not held in many local government councils.
In some states, public servants in the state bureaucracy were appointed as members of caretakers committee to manage local government councils. This is against the provision of the Constitution which states that “local government councils must be composed of democratically elected councillors”. The Revenue of a local government is derived from three sources which are Federation Account, part of internally generated revenue of a state and internally generated revenue of the local government.
The Joint Account in which all revenue for local governments are paid into and shared is where governors deny local governments of their due share as they are only given money to pay salaries and other recurrent expenditure. Money for capital projects are not released to them. Capital projects at the local government level are directly organized from the office of the governor.
From the foregoing, it could be seen that local government councils are mere extension of the state civil service structure and their funds are used as security vote by governors. This has a serious implication for the democratization process.
Local government is the primary school of democracy. That is why the order of election starts with them.
The normal progression of elections is local government election, state election and national election. A good election for party offices and councillorship is the foundation upon which elections into public elective offices at both state and national levels are built. Starting election at this level will enable election management body to correct its challenges in all the three phases of election – pre-election day, election day and post-election day. The situation we have in Nigeria is that elections are hardly conducted at this level. Most governors prefer to use care-taker committees which are non-elective. A few states conduct non-transparent elections which are not free and fair.
After three days of its first pronouncement on the scrapping of local government councils, the Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government of the National Conference decided to change its earlier decision due to pressure from stakeholders. This did not resolve the challenges of local government councils which are due to illegal control by governors. The only way this can be done is through the amendment of the 1999 Constitution. This is not an easy task as governors will not fold their arms and forgo the source of easy funds. The challenges are before both legislative bodies at national and state levels which should be aware that national interest should be above personal one. Nigerians expect them to liberate local government councils from the dubious activities of SIECs and tyranny of governors.