10 April 2002
opinion
Lagos — Even as the ruling People's Democractic Party, PDP, has fixed May 18 for council polls, feelers from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, show that it might not be prepared for the exercise. The implication of this, as Samuel Ajayi writes, is that all stakeholders (governors, INEC political parties have to dialogue on the way forward).
Since a fortnight ago, when local governments across the country were legally betrothed to states by the Supreme Court of the federation, the discourse has turned from whether states have the right to legislate on matters that have to do with the third tier of government to when local councils would be dissolved and elections held. The shift in the discourse did not come to many as a surprise. While the argument lasted, governors were sounding it loud and clear to local governments that by May 29, the present leadership in all the nations even hundred and seventy-four local councils would become history. Earlier, the National Assembly had, in a military fashion, decreed that local government executives elected to serve for three years would now serve four years to "ensure uniformity in elections in 2003."
Not a few people read cheap politicking in the whole set-up. States kicked against the move and, arguably for the first time, states Houses of Assembly agreed with their governors that it was wrong for the National Assembly to extend the tenure of local government chairmen. And while the furore lasted, ostensibly savouring the federal protection guaranteed by the controversial legislation, local government chairmen, under their association, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, threatened fire and brimstone should any governor make any move to get them out of office.
Since the Supreme Court laid the matter to rest on March 28, in a landmark judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Patigi, the focus now is whether local government elections could hold between now and May 29 when the governors are saying they want to swear-in new executives for local governments in their respective states. And unknown to most of the governors, they too have contributed to the mountain of problems the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will face in a bid to organise elections into local governments.
When governors, mainly for political reasons, decided to create local governments in their respective states, little did they know that such would present some problems for the electoral body when it comes to delineation. The issue is the some of local governments divided into two by the governors would require times two of the manpower used to conduct elections into them in 1999. And this even raises another fundamental question which invariably will still require the "blessing" of the National Assembly to resolve.
In creating new local governments, a state House of Assembly is expected to 'inform' the National Assembly. Section 2, subsection 6 of the 1999 Constitution supports this. It states that "For the purpose of enabling the National Assembly to exercise the powers conferred upon it by subsection (5) of the this section, each state House of Assembly shall, after the creation of more local government areas pursuant to subsection (3) of this section, make adequate returns to each House of the National Assembly."
This section of the constitution is also preceded by another section of the same constitution which just ambiguous. Section 7, subsection 6(a) of the constitution stipulates that "the National Assembly shall make provisions for statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils of the Federation and (b) of the same subsection states that "the House of Assembly (of a state shall make provisions for statutory allocation of public revenue to local governments with the state."
While it may be argued that the recent directive that states and local governments should be maintaining a joint account might taken care of (b) of the this section, subsection 6 of that Section 2 of the second schedule is quite clear on the role to be played by the National Assembly in the creation of the a local government. For the purpose of documentation, the state House of Assembly is expected to inform the National Assembly about the creation of a new local government council. It is doubtful if the Houses of Assembly of states that have created new local governments have duly 'informed' the National Assembly about the exercise. The question therefore is whether constitutionally, these new local governments are not illegal.
If they are, can elections be conducted into them? If states' electoral commissions, which are statutorily empowered to conduct elections to local governments, decide to go ahead, it still needs directive from INEC and more importantly, funds. And the dissonance here is that the Chairman of INEC, Dr. Abel Guobadia, has stated that for now, the body might not be really prepared for council polls either. He has his reasons: voters' register and funds.
However, what has mainly not be noticed is that even the National Assembly contributed to the tight corner INEC has found itself. According to the INEC boss, they never reckoned that the electoral bill sent to the National Assembly would take the time it took to come out. And worsen the situation, when it eventually came out, it became a lingering subject of controversy.
In an interview he granted the edition of TELL magazine dated April 15, Guobadia admitted that the delay has put the Commission under a lot of pressure. "It simply slowed us down. It is putting us under alot of pressure. Quite frankly, we thought by October or September last year, the bill would have come out. For example if the bill (now) comes out tomorrow, take the issue of new associations, which hope to become new parties. We need to work to be able to accommodate their wishes. We are obliged but that is not the only task that immediately attracts our attention. Really, the delay, to put it mildly, is not very comfortable to us."
It is obvious that the respectable diplomat is only trying not to cast aspersion on the National Assembly for not passing the Electoral Bill on time, but even it is passed today, will that enable the Commission to be able to conduct elections for local governments across the country. For instance, there are many new associations which the INEC boss says have not properly applied. "There is no proper application before me," he declared.
If the issue of whether an application is proper or not is easily resolved, not that of finance. It took a crying out by the Commission, before the federal government decided to release funds for it. And it is doubtful if the Commission has received the money. Not only that, if the body is already in possession of the money, Guobadia's INEC is a bit ambitious than its predecessors. According to the umpire, voters' register would not be like the past when it was manual.
"We want to go computer. We will have all our data in the computer data bank (but) it will take a minimum of two months to get vendors mobilised on the field," Guobadia explained. And that is another reason the local government polls might be everything but easy within the next two months.
Corroborating Guobadia, the chairman of the House Committee on Special Duties, Hon. Abdulahi Gumel, stated that local government elections could not hold now due to the fact that new voters' register need to be put in place before such an exercise could be carried out.
"They (INEC) have to conduct the elections with new voters' register as compiled by Independent National Electoral Commission. INEC, as at the moment, has no voters' register," Gumel explained. Not done yet, he warned governors against dissolving councils as the Supreme Court verdict did not give them powers to do that. "The present crop of the leadership of local government can only handover to democratically elected chairmen and councilors," Gumel said; adding that not until elections are held could anyone take over from local government chairmen across the country
That is not all. The ruling People's Democratic Party, PDP, has said that the party had okayed Saturday May 18 as the day elections might be conducted to local governments across the country. According to party's National Publicity Secretary, Venatus Ikem, dismissed the fears over lack of a comprehensive voters' register. He said any delay of the elections is a recipe for chaos. The point Ikem is missing, however, is whether it is the duty of his party to determine whether elections could hold or not.
He however allayed the fears of incumbent local government chairmen that no governor would touch them before the conduct of local government polls. He said this is an agreement that has been reached by the party with all the 21 governors of PDP-controlled states.
Human rights lawyer and a senior advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has thrown his weight behind the postponement of local government polls saying that there is need to be flexible. "Now that the governors have won legally," Agbakoba said, "I will expect them to understand that the voters' register is not ready and new parties are not on ground, so let us have some flexibility."
Will governors heed this advice? PDP might have instructed its governors to slow down, but is it binding on other states not controlled by the PDP? What if the other fifteen governors decide to dissolve councils? This is an instructive question in the sense that it will give such governors to put their political acolytes in the councils, a situation the National Assembly was trying to prevent by enacting a law that stood legality on its head.
But any way it goes, it is all obvious that roundtable dialogue by all the contending players is necessary to protect the fragile polity.
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