For the third tier of government in Nigeria, decadence, it may be argued, is the prize we have to pay for our collective indifference to the systematic mangling of the democratic space...
The ceaseless abuse of the autonomy of local governments in the country by governors will soon be a subject of legal fireworks at the Supreme Court. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has filed a suit on behalf of the Federal Government at the apex court in this regard, seeking a slew of reliefs from the court to reverse the trend. It is a move likely to breathe new life into grassroots governance and preserve the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution. We welcome it.
The 36 state governors who are defendants in the case were last Thursday given seven days to file their defence. There are 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country, listed in the Constitution, which constitute the third tier of government in Nigeria, and are part of the country's federating units. Statutorily, they benefit from financial allocations from the centre for the discharge of their functions.
But the funds hardly get to them as many governors hijack the money and spend it as they desire. This practice has entrenched treasury looting and the total dysfunction of governance that is closest to the people. At times, this has impelled the Federal Government to provide services to councils, which ordinarily, are outside its remit.
Besides the seizure of funds, democratically elected chairpersons and councillors of local governments are routinely sacked from office and replaced with Caretaker Committees, whose members are stooges of governors. These political appointees hold sway as long as the governors wish and are tight-lipped about the misappropriation of their councils' funds. In some cases, constitutionally sanctioned local government elections are never conducted throughout the tenure of some governors. These are gross misconducts and abuse of power, which should not be tolerated in a democracy.
In the 12 years to 2019, data analysed by Dataphyte and published by PREMIUM TIMES shows that N15.5 trillion was allocated to the LGAs. Much of the funds might either have been diverted, or pocketed. The April 2024 allocation shared in May by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) shows that councils received N293.816 billion, while the Federal Government collected N390.412 billion and States amassed N403.4 billion.
The governors not only tamper with the federal allocations of the local governments but the 10 per cent share of internally generated revenue, one of the reasons the States/Local Governments Joint Account was constitutionally created, is denied them too.
To cure these ills, therefore, the Federal Government wants the Supreme Court to give an order to expressly state that the funds of LGAs from the Federation Account should be paid directly to them, rather than through the state governments. "In the face of the violation of the 1999 Constitution, the Federal Government is not obligated under Section 162 of the Constitution to pay any State funds standing to the credit of the local government where no democratically elected local government is in place," reads one of the reliefs.
Under the Constitution, the building and administration of markets, motor parks, primary schools, waste disposal, primary healthcare delivery, transportation, rural roads maintenance, provision of signage, and maintenance of cemeteries and abattoirs, constitute the core services of local governments. But they no longer discharge these responsibilities due to the lack of funds. This aberration has created thousands of unproductive council workers who report at their offices only at the end of the month to collect salaries.
For more than a decade, the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), founded in 1999, has brought this governance disorder to the front burner of national discourse without any remedy. The Seventh National Assembly initiated a legislative process for the autonomy of the LGAs, but the State Houses of Assembly, which are puppets of governors, smothered the effort with their opposition.
Not a few elected chairmen have been harassed, intimidated and hounded out of office for crying out loud against the disorder. Wale Adedayo, a journalist, who until August 2023 was the elected chairman of Ijebu-East LGA of Ogun State, was a recent victim. He had accused Governor Dapo Abiodun of diverting council funds, which the governor denied.
According to Adedayo, the action incapacitated his council and made him appear incompetent before the people. Of the SURE-P palliatives given to the 20 LGAs in the state in tranches of N2.5 billion, N2.6 billion, N2.8 billion and N2.9 billion by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, "Not a dime of these funds was released to any of the LGs in Ogun State," Adedayo alleged, in an SOS message to a former governor of the state, Segun Osoba. He suffered not only removal from office through a seemingly choreographed impeachment but was equally a victim of needless police incarceration.For the third tier of government in Nigeria, decadence, it may be argued, is the prize we have to pay for our collective indifference to the systematic mangling of the democratic space, aloofness to corruption and the collapse of checks and balances enshrined in the constitution, for good governance and accountability. That is why a governor can tamper with council funds, dissolve elected local government administrations, and refuse to conduct elections, without consequences.
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These are sufficient grounds or "gross misconduct" for any governor to be impeached by a State Assembly. No such case has cropped up since 1999. Not even the eyebrows of any legislature have been raised. Therefore, the citizenry, civil society organisations, the media and the judiciary should redouble their roles as watchdogs of democracy by ensuring that those in public office are held to account. This is a sure path through which this democracy could be strengthened and saved from self-immolation.
Nigeria cannot have emperors as governors, with lawmakers easily bribed for due processes of democracy to be subverted, and still pretend that all is well. This charade or infidelity to the 1999 Constitution is partly due to the fact that it is not a product of "We the people," as dubiously claimed in its prefatory declaration. It is a document forced on Nigerians by a departing military regime. For this reason, there is a growing advocacy for it to be changed with one made by the autochthonous entities of Nigeria, which would reflect the true values of federalism. PREMIUM TIMES shares this concern.
Until this is achieved, the provisions of the Constitution, which grants autonomy to the local governments - to make decisions on how they spend their money or run their affairs, should remain sacrosanct.
