DIRISU YAKUBU examines how governors’ control of local government councils through the appointment of stooges as administrators have undermined democracy at the grassroots level and the effectiveness of the third tier of government
Seen as the closest level of government to the people, scholars and commentators have since the return of democracy in 1999 clamoured for an appreciable level of autonomy for the local government councils.
They argue that without a substantial degree of autonomy to execute their policies and programmes, the local governments will exist only on paper in contrast with their counterparts in developed countries.
Since its elevation to a tier of government in 1976, the local government system has been battling different hurdles, which have limited and almost crippled the councils’ functionality.
Arguably, the biggest challenge seems to be the overbearing influence of state governors, many of who see the third tier as an appendage of the state government.
It has become a normal practice for new governors on the assumption of office to dissolve local government administrations, with the Plateau and Benue State governors, Caleb Mutfwang and Hyacinth Alia, respectively, being the latest to carry on with the practice.
Mutfwang dissolved the 17 local government councils in the state, citing the failure of the chairmen to give a proper account detailing their revenue and expenditure profile, while Alia anchored his decision to suspend the 23 local government chairmen on the recommendation of the state House of Assembly, which accused them of corruption.
As expected, the actions of the two governors elicited state-wide criticisms, with many accusing them of lacking respect for the rule of law and acting as if they were sole administrators in a military regime.
In 2019, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, shortly after his inauguration, dissolved the local councils, a decision the Supreme Court later declared as illegal. The sacked officials, under the aegis of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, filed a suit at the state High Court to challenge their sacking. However, the court ruled in favour of the state.
Dissatisfied by the ruling, they approached the Court of Appeal, which ruled in their favour, nullifying the ruling of the lower court. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment by a five-man panel of justices, held that Makinde acted beyond his powers when on his assumption of office on May 29, 2019, he sacked the chairmen of the 33 local government councils as well as the 35 local council development areas in the state.
The apex court also fined the Makinde administration N20m.
According to analysts, the usual practice of governors, sometimes in collaboration with the Houses of Assembly, dissolving the local councils has undermined democracy at the grass roots.
Apart from the usual disruption to their administration, the governors have also been repeatedly accused of diverting funds meant for the local governments. Efforts by successive governments to halt the diversion have failed to address the problem.
In December 2022, former President Muhammadu Buhari said the stunted development at the local government level was caused by governors and local government officials, who “pocket” their funds.
Speaking at a parley with members of the Senior Executive Course No. 44 (2022) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja, Buhari, while citing a personal experience involving an unnamed governor, described as “terrible” how some governors receive funds on behalf of councils and remit half of such to the council chairmen who pilfer the remnant, leaving nothing for developmental projects.
Perhaps, this explains why most local government councils are in a sorry state, with an embarrassing level of poverty and infrastructural decay.
Buhari said, “From my personal experience, if the money from the Federation Account to the state is about N100m, N50m will be sent to the chairman, but he will sign that he received N100m. The governor will pocket the balance and share it with whoever he wants to share it with. And then, the chairman of the local government must see how much he must pay in salaries and to hell with development. When he pays the salaries of the big men, the balance he will put in his pocket.
“This is what is happening. This is Nigeria. It’s a terrible thing; you cannot say the person who was doing this is not educated. He is a qualified lawyer, he is experienced, yet he participated in this type of corruption. So, it’s a matter of conscience, whichever level we find ourselves. As a leader, you sit here, with all the sacrifices the country is making by putting you through institutions and getting you ready to lead. The fundamental thing is personal integrity. May God help us.”
In May 2019, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit banned governors, public officers and financial institutions/stakeholders from tampering with the statutory allocations of the local government councils from the Federation Account effective from June 1, 2019. It also set a daily cash withdrawal limit of N500,000 for all the local governments, and that any other transaction above the limit should be done through cheques or electronic transfers.
The NFIU stated, “Henceforth, all erring individuals and companies will be allowed to face direct international and local targeted sanctions in order not to allow any negative consequences to fall on the entire country. To be precise, with effect from 1st of June, any bank that allows any transaction from any local government account without the money first reaching a particular local government account will be sanctioned 100 per cent both locally and internationally.”
To the surprise of many Nigerians, governors rejected the idea and eventually dragged the NFIU to court over the issue. Citing certain provisions in the constitution, the governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said the Federal Government should be restrained from interfering with the state government’s powers to tamper with local government funds.
But the court ruled that the governors had no locus standi to spend funds allocated to the local councils. According to a statement by the NFIU’s spokesman, Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the ruling.
Despite the court ruling and other efforts to stop the governors from tampering with the local government funds, the practice seems not to have disappeared. This is evident in the continued incapacitation of the councils.
Overall, it would seem the governors are central to the independence and success of the local governments.
To enable governance to take shape at the grass roots, a public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, called for further amendment to the 1999 Constitution, among other relevant initiatives.
In an interview with our correspondent, Ojo said, “The challenge with local government administration in Nigeria stems from a constitutional provision of Section 162, which provides for Joint State and Local Government Account. This section is the reason the governors don’t want to let go of their hold on the local government councils.
“Federalism simply connotes power sharing between the federal and the state governments. In the classical definition, the local government is not featured as a federating unit. We have Section 7 of the Constitution, which says that the local governments shall be democratically administered but aside from this, local governments are mere subjects of state Houses of Assembly. Every attempt by the National Assembly to give the local governments autonomy has been frustrated by the governors.
“From 1999, the National Assembly made several alterations to the constitution to give local governments autonomy, but when it gets to state assemblies for concurrence, the governors use their influence to frustrate it.”
Ojo added that in their bid to maintain their hold on the local governments “some of the governors have gone ahead to create local council development areas and the incumbent President, Bola Tinubu, started it as the then governor of Lagos State in 2002 when he created 37 LCDAs in addition to the 20 local government councils recognised by the constitution.
“If you remember, this created a face-off between him and the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who withheld the allocations to Lagos. When the case got to the Supreme Court, it held that such councils could be created by governors, but the same must be sent to the National Assembly for consequential adjustment. But the question is, if you create new LCDAs, how do you fund them?” he added.
While slamming governors for seeing local government councils as their personal fiefdom, Ojo stressed, “When new governors come in, they dissolve the local government structure and appoint their own stooges. This is a form of compensation for those who helped them to win elections.
“This was part of the challenges Muhammadu Buhari faced when the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit issued a directive that no local government chairman should have more than N500,000 cash and that the money due to them should be paid directly to them by the Accountant-General of the Federation. But Buhari was taken to court with a claim that he acted ultra vires of his powers.
“Every attempt to alter Section 162 to grant financial autonomy to the local governments has been resisted by the state governors. This is the problem! The governors see the local governments as a cash cow. Given their numbers, they have the highest allocations cumulatively and the governors are leveraging this to stay in control, acting illegally most of the time.”
Speaking on the way out, Ojo argued that it was counterproductive to retain the model, noting that it was either the local government councils were scrapped or they were strengthened.
“We either scrap the local government system or strengthen it. Let’s remove the local governments from the constitution and allow states to decide if they want to create a tier of government at the grass roots. If Kano State, for instance, wants to have 200 local government councils, let it do so and fund them accordingly,” Ojo added.
A former Secretary-General, Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, blamed the governors for not doing enough to avail the local government councils the freedom they need to implement policies and programmes that could change the living conditions of the rural populace.
He said, “Local government councils are expected to be the closest to the people and their credible performance will go a long way to enhance the socioeconomic development of the people. They will also reduce undue agitation and help in enthroning democracy at that level of government.
“However, as it is right now, the state governments have used the state electoral commissions or undemocratic administrative fiat to kill democracy and development at that level of government by making the councils to be accountable, not to the people, but to the state governors.”
According to him, a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has been vocal in recent times about the failure of the local government councils to deliver on their democratic mandate.
He added, “He (Ogbeh) called on the major political parties and their candidates during the electioneering period to include in their manifestos reforms of local governments for performance. Unfortunately, all the political parties and their candidates never did so during their last campaigns, hence the undemocratic attitudes of the governors towards the third tier of government.
“What should be done to address this challenge is for the National Assembly to embark on extensive reforms of the local government administration for performance, starting with the abrogation of the state electoral commissions to pave the way for the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct elections into local government councils.”
Good governance advocate and President, Women Arise, Joe Okei-Odumakin, said the solution to the challenge was the restructuring of the Nigerian state.
She stated, “Restructuring and devolution of power through constitutional amendment is the way to go. Again, the executive arm of government needs to be constantly checked to prevent abuse of power. An independent judiciary can assist in keeping the executive arm of government on its toes as against the present premise of governors controlling the local governments as if they are ministries or departments under their control.
“Local governments can function and bring a sense of development closer to the people if there is a deliberate effort to make them perform their roles. We have seen the works of counties in the United Kingdom and there is no reason why ours cannot function.”
