RECENTLY, the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment granted autonomy to the 774 local governments across Nigeria with respect to receipts from the federation account.
This judgment followed an action filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF). Previously, there was the State and Local Government Joint Account from which the local governments got their revenues. Now, the judgment empowers the AGF to disburse allocations to the local governments.
But can it in effect redefine local government administration, particularly with respect to the performance and fulfillment of their constitutional roles and responsibilities to the grassroots when some of them were constantly being bailed out by the state governments, often putting the latter under financial pressure, particularly with regards to payment of primary school teachers and local government pensioners.
Now there should be financial accountability to allow local governments to operate maximally as the third tier of government and expand the frontiers of the provision of the dividends of democracy to the people, especially with regards to capital intensive projects. It is, therefore, not surprising that many state governments feel relieved and have hailed the decision of the apex court granting financial autonomy to the councils.
For the council bosses, expectations are high. Local governments all over the nation must make good use of the funds and subsequently ensure that they witness rapid and massive developments in no distant time.
Indeed, poor or non-performance will not be tolerated. Besides, by virtue of the new mode of allocation and the financial autonomy, the councils should endeavour to cater for the developmental needs of their domains.
Furthermore, if properly harnessed, it will usher in a new era of development for the local governments if they can deliver. It was reported that many local government chairmen were discovered to be financially reckless and failed to perform under the excuse that there was no money to work with. Some lived outside their domains and go to work once in a while, mostly around the end of the month when it is time to receive allocations. When they received what is due to them under the Joint Account, they still made many to believe that there is no money, pretending to be the victims of our federal system when some treat their workers badly, fail to pay salaries promptly and fall back on the state governments like a child who was soon parted with his money. It is time to show maturity.
The era of receiving allocation and disappearing for another month is over. Autonomy does not mean the absence of accountability and state governments will always be there for direction as they also go to the federal government, which has a larger structure to provide needed direction where necessary.
They should be on their toes and be more accountable to the people.
The local governments have never had a reason to fail. The perception many have was that in the past it was justifiable for a local government chairman to fail. That way of thinking have been proven wrong by those who performed by maximizing the resources at their disposal.
Those were the ones who did not rely solely on monthly allocation which can be limited in comparison to the volume of work to be done, but were proactive in raking in substantial IGR. The bad eggs squandered whatever they got as IGR or did not think it was worth the trouble, allowing corrupt revenue collectors to enrich themselves.
Going forward, direct allocation will not put more monies in their coffers. It has to be the same amounts they were entitled to. The only difference they can make is thinking inwards and utilizing revenue sources available at home, particularly agriculture which used to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy. Then the grassroots used to be the great centres of trade, commerce and industry. That is indeed the best route to a greater local governemnt system.
