Issues In Death Of Local Government In Nigeria

By Muiz Banire SAN

Recent agitations about the need for local government autonomy
have exposed a sore point in our concept of public administration.
It is clear that the desire of principal actors in Nigeria of what
they want to call ‘federalism’ is at variance with the
constitutional stipulation of what federalism means. By Section 7
thereof, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999
(as amended), contemplates a local government system as an
independent structure as regards being democratically elected in
its councils. Accordingly, the Constitution mandates the government
of every state, subject to Section 8 of the Constitution, to ensure
the existence of the local government councils under a law, which
provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and
functions of such councils.

Unfortunately, this provision of the Constitution has been
observed more in the breach by most state governments in Nigeria.
The recent pronouncement and body language of President Muhammadu
Buhari insisting on local government autonomy has not gone down
well with many governors. In fact, the decisions of the various
courts of the land, the Supreme Court in particular, insisting on
guaranteeing local government autonomy, have been flatly rejected
by potentates who masquerade as governors of the states in Nigeria.
It is unfortunate that what the Constitution regards as the third
tier of government has been turned to mere administrative
departments by some governors whose clamour for progressiveness can
only be seen as mere hypocrisy. It is indisputable that the
functions of the local governments have been provided for in the
Fourth Schedule to the Constitution, meant to be expansive and not
restrictive, as the word “includes” used in the provision of
Section 7 of the Constitution is meant to be so interpreted. Rather
than state governments creating more functions for the local
governments councils in their states to enable them to be more
functional, some state governments have taken over most functions
of their local governments by enacting terrible laws that confer
constitutional functions of the local governments on the
states.

By this the areas of influence, legislative competence and
financial capacity of the local governments become weakened to the
extent that some local governments only pay salaries of their
workers and can do no more than that. Disappointingly, the Houses
of Assembly of states are complicit in this unconstitutional
practice of castrating the local governments. They are the ones who
enact laws by which the capacities of the local government councils
are reduced, if not totally obliterated. The local government
councils are, therefore, unable to generate any substantial revenue
and, thus, remain eunuchs that the Constitution does not
contemplate them to be. With respect to security of tenure, the
most violated tier of government is the local government.

The governors have rather reduced this government structure to a
mere appendage of state governments, as the governors dissolve them
at will and toy at pleasure with the tenure. In some states,
holding local government elections is an anathema that the
governors as gods have forbidden. Rather than hold elections to
ensure democratically elected local government structures decreed
by the Constitution, these governors only appoint caretakers and
impose their lackeys on the people. At the expiration of the tenure
of such caretakers, they get re-appointed by the same governors,
who carefully select their loyalists within their own political
party, thereby denying members of other political parties and the
public at large the right to participate in how they are governed.
This is against the provision of the Constitution in Section 14(c),
which provides that “the participation by the people in their
government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of
this Constitution.”

Whereas the Supreme Court has, in so many cases, declared
caretaker committees appointed by governors to be unconstitutional,
the practice continues unabated and, disappointingly, some states
have not witnessed local government elections in so many years.

These tyrants, who claim to be democrats, dissolve elected local
government executives and impose caretaker committees on them,
believing that no one has the power to challenge their iniquities
and even when challenged, it will take years before the matter gets
to the Supreme Court from which decision there is no further right
of appeal. By that time, the tyrant believes his own tenure as
governor would have expired and he does not see any sense in
behaving in accordance with the laws of the land. The quality of
persons imposed as caretaker committee members of local government
councils by state governors is even a shame to modern system of
governance. Some governors would rather appoint touts and thugs to
become councillors and local government chairmen in order to be
worshipped as gods by these unworthy beneficiaries whose
intelligence quotient cannot even administer a mere household.

Even where elections are held under the ‘partial’ state
electoral commission, the emergence of thugs as local government
executives has become a fait accompli as governors ensure
nomination of miscreants as party standard-bearers for election
into local government councils. It is as sure as thunder after
lightning that these delinquents would pilot the affairs of the
local government areas for a tenure as the elections will
definitely be rigged by the governor. That is why the ruling party
has been winning elections into all the local government councils
in their states, as if the opposition parties have resigned their
roles as political parties. No wonder a state in which opposition
parties have seats in the House of Assembly would produce no winner
of local government elections from any other political party except
the ruling party.

Some Houses of Assembly are so insensitive that they make laws
that make people who are even eligible to contest and become House
of Assembly members to be ineligible to contest and become elected
local government officials. Such conditions, like production of
three years’ tax clearance certificates as part of the
qualifications to contest local government elections are not only
illegal, they are grossly unconstitutional. Once it is the
provision of the Constitution in Section 7(4) that any person who
is qualified to vote and be voted for in a House of Assembly
election shall be qualified to vote and be voted for in a local
government election, the imposition of tax clearance certificate as
a condition to contest and become a local government executive, is
definitely unconstitutional as the Constitution has clearly
stipulated the requirements for qualification to contest a House of
Assembly election which do not include production of tax clearance
certificates.

This unconstitutional requirement is anti-democratic as it
renders fresh graduates who are yet to secure employment but
possesses administrative acumen or other people who are not yet
earning incomes and are, therefore, not subject to taxation,
unqualified to contest and become local government executives.

As regards finances of local government councils, while the
Constitution mandates every local government to be entitled to
allocations from the Federal Consolidated Revenue Account,
unfortunately, the Constitution adopts the state governments as the
conduit pipes by which allocations due to the local governments are
to be funnelled to their respective purses. This has created an
opportunity for many governors to divert local government
allocations and deny the local government councils their
entitlements. What finally gets to the local government councils is
peanuts, by which no meaningful development can be carried out by
this toothless tier of government.

When the Federal Government even made efforts to ensure that
local government allocations get to the desired recipients, State
governors have terrorised their local government appointees to the
extent that after remitting the moneys to the local government
coffers, the chairmen of the local government councils are made to
refund a substantial part of the moneys to the coffers of the state
government. All the efforts made during the time of President
Olusegun Obasanjo to guarantee local government finances were
repelled by state governments who today have perfected this
stealing craft.

The provision of the Constitution mandating state governments to
remit 10 per cent of their revenues to local government councils in
their states has been rendered otiose by state governors.

Except for probably Kaduna’s Nasir El-Rufai and Borno’s Babagana
Zulum, it is doubtful if any governor observes this mandate of
remitting 10% of the revenue of the state to the local government
councils. It is these unwholesome practices of the governors that
make President Buhari’s directive that all local government
allocations be paid directly to the local government councils, to
be praise-worthy. While this directive is clearly unconstitutional
as it violates key provisions of the Constitution, particularly,
Section 162 thereof, there seems to be no other way to prevent the
larcenous and impeachable acts of State Governors who have rendered
our Constitution, the supreme law of the land, a mere collection of
printable words commanding no more attention than a mere literary
textbook. Disappointingly, as impeachable as these acts of the
Governors are, there is no House of Assembly to protect the
Constitution or enforce the observance of court decisions on the
Governors.

The Houses of Assembly of States have become so complicit in
this criminal brigandage against the Constitution that one wonders
if our society deserves to be called a part of the civilised world.
What is then honourable in the “Honourable Members” of the House
when the supreme law of the land is desecrated under their watch
while they pretend not to see anything? It is only when we decide
to play governance games according to the rules that we can
register any meaningful development. State Governors who are bereft
of ideas on how to create wealth or generate revenue shall forever
be gluttonous and shall scavenge for funds from criminal places.
They retard development with their incapability and are setting
dangerous templates for governance. No wonder our people evince
apathy when election comes as they have come to believe that
nothing good can come out of the system.

Aside from the fact that their votes would not count, there is
no purpose in joining hands to elect your own economic robbers who
merely use your participation to create a façade of legitimacy for
their ignoble victory at elections. Until we learn to observe the
laws of the land, it is clear that the tier of government called
local government will remain dead in the hands of the monarchical
governors. I must however add the rider that even the little in the
hands of most of the local government purse are equally scavenged,
thereby calling for the total overhaul of the local government
system. The import of which is that with the dept of the crop of
leaders (Rulers) is insufficient to make them capable of positively
impacting the development of their areas even where the resources
are available. Adieu, Mr. Local Government.

By Muiz Banire SAN

Recent agitations about the need for local government autonomy
have exposed a sore point in our concept of public administration.
It is clear that the desire of principal actors in Nigeria of what
they want to call ‘federalism’ is at variance with the
constitutional stipulation of what federalism means. By Section 7
thereof, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999
(as amended), contemplates a local government system as an
independent structure as regards being democratically elected in
its councils. Accordingly, the Constitution mandates the government
of every state, subject to Section 8 of the Constitution, to ensure
the existence of the local government councils under a law, which
provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and
functions of such councils.

Unfortunately, this provision of the Constitution has been
observed more in the breach by most state governments in Nigeria.
The recent pronouncement and body language of President Muhammadu
Buhari insisting on local government autonomy has not gone down
well with many governors. In fact, the decisions of the various
courts of the land, the Supreme Court in particular, insisting on
guaranteeing local government autonomy, have been flatly rejected
by potentates who masquerade as governors of the states in Nigeria.
It is unfortunate that what the Constitution regards as the third
tier of government has been turned to mere administrative
departments by some governors whose clamour for progressiveness can
only be seen as mere hypocrisy. It is indisputable that the
functions of the local governments have been provided for in the
Fourth Schedule to the Constitution, meant to be expansive and not
restrictive, as the word “includes” used in the provision of
Section 7 of the Constitution is meant to be so interpreted. Rather
than state governments creating more functions for the local
governments councils in their states to enable them to be more
functional, some state governments have taken over most functions
of their local governments by enacting terrible laws that confer
constitutional functions of the local governments on the
states.

By this the areas of influence, legislative competence and
financial capacity of the local governments become weakened to the
extent that some local governments only pay salaries of their
workers and can do no more than that. Disappointingly, the Houses
of Assembly of states are complicit in this unconstitutional
practice of castrating the local governments. They are the ones who
enact laws by which the capacities of the local government councils
are reduced, if not totally obliterated. The local government
councils are, therefore, unable to generate any substantial revenue
and, thus, remain eunuchs that the Constitution does not
contemplate them to be. With respect to security of tenure, the
most violated tier of government is the local government.

The governors have rather reduced this government structure to a
mere appendage of state governments, as the governors dissolve them
at will and toy at pleasure with the tenure. In some states,
holding local government elections is an anathema that the
governors as gods have forbidden. Rather than hold elections to
ensure democratically elected local government structures decreed
by the Constitution, these governors only appoint caretakers and
impose their lackeys on the people. At the expiration of the tenure
of such caretakers, they get re-appointed by the same governors,
who carefully select their loyalists within their own political
party, thereby denying members of other political parties and the
public at large the right to participate in how they are governed.
This is against the provision of the Constitution in Section 14(c),
which provides that “the participation by the people in their
government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of
this Constitution.”

Whereas the Supreme Court has, in so many cases, declared
caretaker committees appointed by governors to be unconstitutional,
the practice continues unabated and, disappointingly, some states
have not witnessed local government elections in so many years.

These tyrants, who claim to be democrats, dissolve elected local
government executives and impose caretaker committees on them,
believing that no one has the power to challenge their iniquities
and even when challenged, it will take years before the matter gets
to the Supreme Court from which decision there is no further right
of appeal. By that time, the tyrant believes his own tenure as
governor would have expired and he does not see any sense in
behaving in accordance with the laws of the land. The quality of
persons imposed as caretaker committee members of local government
councils by state governors is even a shame to modern system of
governance. Some governors would rather appoint touts and thugs to
become councillors and local government chairmen in order to be
worshipped as gods by these unworthy beneficiaries whose
intelligence quotient cannot even administer a mere household.

Even where elections are held under the ‘partial’ state
electoral commission, the emergence of thugs as local government
executives has become a fait accompli as governors ensure
nomination of miscreants as party standard-bearers for election
into local government councils. It is as sure as thunder after
lightning that these delinquents would pilot the affairs of the
local government areas for a tenure as the elections will
definitely be rigged by the governor. That is why the ruling party
has been winning elections into all the local government councils
in their states, as if the opposition parties have resigned their
roles as political parties. No wonder a state in which opposition
parties have seats in the House of Assembly would produce no winner
of local government elections from any other political party except
the ruling party.

Some Houses of Assembly are so insensitive that they make laws
that make people who are even eligible to contest and become House
of Assembly members to be ineligible to contest and become elected
local government officials. Such conditions, like production of
three years’ tax clearance certificates as part of the
qualifications to contest local government elections are not only
illegal, they are grossly unconstitutional. Once it is the
provision of the Constitution in Section 7(4) that any person who
is qualified to vote and be voted for in a House of Assembly
election shall be qualified to vote and be voted for in a local
government election, the imposition of tax clearance certificate as
a condition to contest and become a local government executive, is
definitely unconstitutional as the Constitution has clearly
stipulated the requirements for qualification to contest a House of
Assembly election which do not include production of tax clearance
certificates.

This unconstitutional requirement is anti-democratic as it
renders fresh graduates who are yet to secure employment but
possesses administrative acumen or other people who are not yet
earning incomes and are, therefore, not subject to taxation,
unqualified to contest and become local government executives.

As regards finances of local government councils, while the
Constitution mandates every local government to be entitled to
allocations from the Federal Consolidated Revenue Account,
unfortunately, the Constitution adopts the state governments as the
conduit pipes by which allocations due to the local governments are
to be funnelled to their respective purses. This has created an
opportunity for many governors to divert local government
allocations and deny the local government councils their
entitlements. What finally gets to the local government councils is
peanuts, by which no meaningful development can be carried out by
this toothless tier of government.

When the Federal Government even made efforts to ensure that
local government allocations get to the desired recipients, State
governors have terrorised their local government appointees to the
extent that after remitting the moneys to the local government
coffers, the chairmen of the local government councils are made to
refund a substantial part of the moneys to the coffers of the state
government. All the efforts made during the time of President
Olusegun Obasanjo to guarantee local government finances were
repelled by state governments who today have perfected this
stealing craft.

The provision of the Constitution mandating state governments to
remit 10 per cent of their revenues to local government councils in
their states has been rendered otiose by state governors.

Except for probably Kaduna’s Nasir El-Rufai and Borno’s Babagana
Zulum, it is doubtful if any governor observes this mandate of
remitting 10% of the revenue of the state to the local government
councils. It is these unwholesome practices of the governors that
make President Buhari’s directive that all local government
allocations be paid directly to the local government councils, to
be praise-worthy. While this directive is clearly unconstitutional
as it violates key provisions of the Constitution, particularly,
Section 162 thereof, there seems to be no other way to prevent the
larcenous and impeachable acts of State Governors who have rendered
our Constitution, the supreme law of the land, a mere collection of
printable words commanding no more attention than a mere literary
textbook. Disappointingly, as impeachable as these acts of the
Governors are, there is no House of Assembly to protect the
Constitution or enforce the observance of court decisions on the
Governors.

The Houses of Assembly of States have become so complicit in
this criminal brigandage against the Constitution that one wonders
if our society deserves to be called a part of the civilised world.
What is then honourable in the “Honourable Members” of the House
when the supreme law of the land is desecrated under their watch
while they pretend not to see anything? It is only when we decide
to play governance games according to the rules that we can
register any meaningful development. State Governors who are bereft
of ideas on how to create wealth or generate revenue shall forever
be gluttonous and shall scavenge for funds from criminal places.
They retard development with their incapability and are setting
dangerous templates for governance. No wonder our people evince
apathy when election comes as they have come to believe that
nothing good can come out of the system.

Aside from the fact that their votes would not count, there is
no purpose in joining hands to elect your own economic robbers who
merely use your participation to create a façade of legitimacy for
their ignoble victory at elections. Until we learn to observe the
laws of the land, it is clear that the tier of government called
local government will remain dead in the hands of the monarchical
governors. I must however add the rider that even the little in the
hands of most of the local government purse are equally scavenged,
thereby calling for the total overhaul of the local government
system. The import of which is that with the dept of the crop of
leaders (Rulers) is insufficient to make them capable of positively
impacting the development of their areas even where the resources
are available. Adieu, Mr. Local Government.