Since the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s legal verdict on the financial autonomy of the 774 local government areas of the country, concerned citizens have continued to express divergent views on the future of this tier of government in the nation. Except for a few politicians in the class of Mr. Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of Ekiti state, the pronouncement has been lauded by the people. They describe it generally as a welcomed development, given the important roles the government at that level plays in the development of the grass root villages and towns.
Indeed, the chairmen of the many local government councils in the nation appear set to begin to implement policies that will impact positively on their people. The apex court ruled that their monies from the Federal Government Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC must henceforth be directly sent to the individual local governments’ accounts. This is a departure from the past when their shares from the Federal government accounts was received on their behalves by the governors of their respective states.
The judgment which was at the instance of the Attorney-General of the Federation also stipulates that any of such level of governance that does not have elected chairmen and councilors should not be given recognition in the sharing of the national cake. Again, this contradicts the practice in the past where state governors sometimes chose to have local government political leaders appointed by them (governors). Some, like that of Benue even went to the extent of ‘sacking’ elected chairmen and councilors and went scot free.
As good as the directive of the highest court in the land appears, the administrators at the lowest level of managing the people must not lose sight of the ‘follow-come’ components of the court’s ruling. These include the already-known challenges faced by the councils and those that are being created by the judicial authorities at the top. To begin with, many Nigerians have always been skeptical about the competence or willingness of State Electoral Commissions in conducting credible polls. They decry the scenarios where political parties in power in different states ensured that all chairmen and councilors of the states’ local governments are produced by them. They thereby make the elections look like a mere formality where opposing political parties are just used to give value to their (state governments’) acts.
As if, in agreement with this line of thought, the National Assembly (NASS) is currently working on a bill to establish a separate Federal government-managed electoral commission for the councils. Though, this has been rejected by many political watchers, it remains to be seen whether the legislatures will still go on with it as they have done to bills like the one that changed the National Anthem.
One of the implications of establishing an electoral commission by the federal government for local government elections is that it will add to the mockery already being mad of the Orosanye’s Civil Service reform committee recommendations that suggested the merging of some ministries and parastatals seen to be involved in the duplication of functions. Orosanye’s idea was to ensure a cut-down on the cost of governance from the perspective of the civil service. Unfortunately, while Nigerians were clapping for President Tinubu for agreeing to implement the recommendations, he threw another kite in the same direction. He has just established the Ministry of Live Stock Development from the present ministry of Agriculture. This is confusing!
Many local government chairmen and councilors do not reside among the people. And a good number of them only temporarily locate to such places from far-away cities and towns where they were born or lived while pursuing their careers. Thus, they know little or nothing about the communities under their watch. To worsen matters, these categories of politicians are often not allowed to run for second tenures like the president and governors – depriving them of the chance of leveraging on the experience garnered from their first tenures.
The inability of the various local governments to promptly pay the salaries and pensions of their workers have made jobs at that level unattractive to qualified personnel whose counterparts in the main stream civil service seldom respect as colleagues. The general low level of sincerity among the revenue collectors at this government base is another serious issue that the modern administrators must tackle in order to generate the much needed funds for their activities. The members of the societies are eagerly waiting for how they are going to be financially autonomous without stepping on the toes of their governors and the general public.
