By Afolabi Aribigbola

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Nigeria’s federating units as contained in the constitution of the country consists of a central or federal, states and local governments with their distinct powers and jurisdictions. Therefore, they were created to operate as separate tiers of government as established in the grundnorm of the land. Specifically, the local government councils’ independent existence as a separate tier of government in Nigeria is guaranteed by Section 7 (1) 6 of the 1999 constitution. Consequently, local governments like the federal and state governments in the country were expected to enjoy some measure of local autonomy  with their area of jurisdiction.

Local autonomy has been described as the various activities through which a self-governing body such as local governments representing the residents within a certain regional boundary carries out its political and administrative decision making while maintaining relative independence from the federal and state governments.  Local government autonomy refers to the extent to which local governments are free from the control of the state and federal government in the management of their local affairs in the country.

In spite of the specific provisions guaranteeing the existence of local governments in the country as an independent entity and to be administered by elected officials, the reality in the country has been that the operations of this important tier of  government have been eroded or reduced over the years by state governors by failure to conduct elections culminating in agitation to secure their autonomy from the state government that have usurp and taken over their responsibilities. Consequently, the quest for local government autonomy in Nigeria has been a recurring issue that gathered more momentum in recent years resulting in series of actions including an executive bill sent to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu to amend the constitution of Nigeria to transfer the conduct of Local government elections in the country to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Hitherto each of the 36 states have their State Electoral Commissions saddled with the onerous responsibilities of organizing and conducting elections into the local governments.

The executive bill was initiated to correct non conduct of local government elections by the state government because it has been discovered that one instruments being used by the governors to take over local government administration is in their failure to conduct and inaugurate elected officials at the local government level against the provision of Section 7(1) that states emphatically that “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils under this constitution is guaranteed. The situation is appalling to the extent that available record recently indicated that local government in 17 states are being managed by caretaker or transition committees, while there had not been a local government election in Anambra state for over 18 years.

This development is clearly against the provision of the fundamental laws of Nigeria that provide for periodic elections. Elections are not conducted at local government level because of the overwhelming interest of state governors to control and harness the resources of the government at the grassroots. This and many other areas where the governors have impinged on the autonomy of the local councils have prompted the several calls to institute or ensure the genuine autonomy of the local governments in the country.  It has been argued that the governors are able to take control of local government administration because of some constitutional provisions that enable them lord themselves on the local governments. They include the creation of the State-Local Government Joint Account that allowed the funds accruing to the local governments to be pulled together under the control of the governors.

Of course, since the inception of the present fourth republic the federal government and the states have been allowed to discharge their constitutional responsibilities while the local governments that are closer to the people have most of the times been emasculated by the state governments. In most parts of the country the overlording tendencies and undue control exercised by the state governments over the local government have rendered them impotent and unable to perform their constitutional responsibilities.

Indeed, in virtually all the states of Nigerian federation, the local government by act of commission and omission have been subsumed under the state governments and most of their indispensable functions taken over by the governors in overwhelming efforts to control the finances of the local governments. In a further attempt to control the soul of the local governments in the country, many states don’t conduct local government election but prefer to appoint caretake committees that will be answerable to them and that will be fully under their control issuing instructions to them. This regrettably is responsible for the docile and inactivity in most local governments in the country. Most of the local governments now exist to pay workers’ salaries and could not discharge the functions assigned to them by the constitution of the land.

The Nigeria constitution assigned 13 functions to the local government councils in the country. The local government have been wholly unable to carry out these thirteen constitutional responsibilities because they do not control their finances and have become appendages of governors’ offices that can only undertake what the Governor direct them to do.

This unwholesome development where the governors usurp and harnesses the resources of the local government have been severally condemned over the years. Most strand of criticism have been hinged on its illegally that it is against the constitution of the country that established the local government system as distinct level of government to promote grassroots participation as well as take governance closer to the local people. Beyond the issue of flouting the constitution, it has promoted inefficiency and indolence in the very important level of governance because local people are not allowed to control their resources and that over centralization of governance which the local governments were meant to address have been hindered by the present practice.

From the above one can conclude that it was indeed a good and welcome development for the President to seek to correct the seeming anomaly hindering local governance in the country by seeking bill to amend the constitution for the conduct of LG elections to be taken over by INEC. However, the President must not just ensure that the amendment sails through but also go beyond the issue of election to ensure that we have functional autonomous local governments in the country. Other sections of the law that put the control of local government system under the state also need to be amended to remove the power of the governors to dissolve the local councils to suit their whims and caprices. The president and the National Assembly must ensure that the governors don’t block the passage of the bill into law as it happened in 2011 and at other times that attempts were made to amend the constitution to make the local governments enjoy the autonomy invested on them by the constitution.