LGA polls: A federation on two-legged tripod

In this report, LEKE BAIYEWU examines the trend of appointing caretaker committees and sole administrators to manage the local government areas across the country and its implications to the survival of the lowest tier of the federal government system

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on June 13 installed new sole administrators to oversee the affairs of the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the state.

A statement issued earlier by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, had said the 57 sole administrators, after being sworn in, would take charge of their various councils pending the conduct of elections at their domains.

In what indicated that council polls would not be held in Lagos soon, the first version of the statement issued by the state government on Saturday said the sole administrators would take charge of their various councils pending the conduct of elections at the councils “later this year.” But in the “corrected” version which was later sent, “later this year” had been removed.

Ambode had penultimate Thursday approved the dissolution of caretaker committees with immediate effect, following the resolution of the Lagos State House of Assembly, which relieved the executive secretaries of the 57 LGAs and LCDAs who had held sway in the councils of their responsibilities.

Apparently, with the fear that the new appointment of sole administrators would further make having substantive council chairmen in Lagos unlikely, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party had last week asked Ambode not to copy his counterpart in Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, who has not conducted council polls in the state in the last six years.

The opposition party noted that the appointment of sole administrators to manage the local councils in the state was unconstitutional, adding that the governor was not serious about his promise to conduct council poll in the state.

The PDP said Ambode should have allowed the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission to announce the date for the council polls rather than use delay tactics. It added that using sole administrators to head the councils was contrary to section 7 of the 1999 Constitution which made the provision for only democratically elected persons to manage the councils.

A statement by the party read, “These newly appointed sole administrators are all active card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress and have the singular assignment of using the council funds to support all APC candidates in their areas of control. This is unfortunate and a big threat to our democracy. Owing to this observation, we are not sure of free, fair, credible council election.”

A senior official of the government, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of what he wanted to say, said governors had been running away from conducting council polls because the exercise was expensive.

The source said, “The council poll is very expensive. You know that the economy is in a mess; there is economic downturn. But Lagos will hold the (council) election this year. The resources it will consume are huge; that was why people were appointed (into caretaker committees). Ask yourself: why is it difficult for the Lagos State Government to conduct the election? It is not because the government is under any threat; the government is popular. The PDP, being the opposition is in disarray. But the problem is the resources.”

The Lagos State Government however stated that it had begun the process that would lead to the election of council chairmen. The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, told BRIGHT BLOGGER that the inauguration of the caretaker committees was the first step in the process.

He said, “We will conduct it (the poll). The process that will lead to the conduct of the election is what we have started. The sole administrators will be the ones to hand over to the elected chairmen. However, it is still a subject of litigation.”

When asked how soon the election would hold, Ayorinde said, “I can’t say but the process has started.”

It is noteworthy that not only Ambode and Aregbesola are guilty of not conducting council polls, most of the governors are. Observers of the trend have also noted that it did not start under the current administration; it has been on from since democracy began, only that the situation is becoming worse under successive administrations.

Nigeria operates a three-tier federal system of government made up of the federal, state and local governments. Currently, the state governors are lamenting the overbearing influence the Federal Government has on their finances and operations, as ‘too much’ powers have been given to the highest tier. Ironically, the governors too are widely perceived as threatening the existence of the lowest tier – the local governments – in their respective states.

Incidentally, the local governments – currently 744 of them – are the closest to the people and are in the best position to have direct impacts at the grass roots level.

The bone of contention has always been how the local governments should be run. This is apparently why several moves to grant local governments autonomy have hit the brick wall. While a section of the divide believes that local governments should be created and run by state governments, the other section insists on autonomy for local governments – by autonomy, they mean the local governments would be recognised, in practice, as the third tier of government with funds allocated to it directly from the Federation Account.

The amendment of Section 124 of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly under the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration was widely seen as the closest the local government had gone towards becoming autonomous.

In the amendment, the federal legislature granted full financial and administrative autonomy to all the 774 local councils in the country. The amendment also made local councils a full third-tier government. The Senate and the House of Representatives also concurrently deleted the State Independent Electoral Commissions from the constitution, thereby vesting the powers to conduct council elections on the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The implications of the amendment, according to political analysts, will whittle down the powers of the state governors, bringing considerable change to the political equation at the state level, hence the stiff resistance by the governors to the amendment.

Should the state and local governments joint accounts, which the governor often determines what-goes-out and who-gets-what, be abolished, the governor would no longer be able to appoint local governments caretaker committees or aides on local government affairs.

Furthermore, the conflict on jurisdiction, which is currently rife between state governments and the Federal Government, may begin to rear its head in the state-local government relationship. Analysts have predicted that in some states where local councils have operated as appendages to the state governments, there might be the need to delineate the responsibilities and jurisdiction of one from the other.

Today, most of the governors in the country, apart from constituting caretaker committees for the local councils under their domain, have created ministries and offices such as the Ministry of Local Government, Local Government Service Commission, Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government Matters, as well as legislative committees on local government matters both at the state and federal levels. Should the third tier of government gain its autonomy, these offices will be scrapped and their occupants sacked.

Close watchers of the legislative process towards granting the local council autonomy had predicted the frustration of the process at the state Houses of Assembly, over which most of the governors have domineering influence.

To complete the process of the amendment started by the National Assembly, the amended document would still be sent to state Houses of Assembly where at least two-thirds of the 36 Houses of Assembly must approve the amendment before it can take effect. This is usually the end of the road for constitutional amendments governors perceive to be ‘against’ them and their wishes.

The 2014 Ibrahim Index of African Governance had ranked Nigeria 37th among 52 countries in a survey. The report of the survey had showed that 11 West African countries were better governed than Nigeria. Virtually all the indicators used in the survey pertained to how government policies affect the lives of the people.

Although this dismal rating, like others, has been blamed on the endemic corruption ravaging the country and the ineptitude on the part of public office holders, some scholars believe the structure of governance of the country contributed immensely to this scenario.

This is perhaps why more Nigerians are raising their voices in the renewed call for the restructuring of the country’s federalism. Indeed, a larger number of the proponents of restructuring are asking for the decentralisation of the Federal Government and the empowerment of the federating units – states or geopolitical zones.

Lamenting the fate of local governments under the current democratic dispensation, a former National President of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria and National Vice Chairman (South-East) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Mr. Nwabueze Okafor, who pushed for local governments’ autonomy during his tenure, described the appointment of caretaker committees as illegal.

He said, “It is illegal and immoral for the governors to be doing that. In fact, it is an abdication of the oath they took to promote and uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which states in Section 7 (1) that, ‘Under this Constitution, …democratically elected councils are under this constitution guaranteed.’”

“If you go to Section 7 (3), it states that every state government is enjoined to make laws for the structure and function of the local governments. The Constitution is very unambiguous on the kind of government we should have. It is just unfortunate that this is happening – very unfortunate.”

Also, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Prof. Emmanuel Onyebuchi, described the mass appointment of caretaker committees across the country as an aberration. He said such councils could not be regarded as having a government.

Onyebuchi said, “Let me start by making a correction: What exists in most states of the country is local administration, not local government. The use of caretaker committees is an aberration. Local government is a government at the local level, which councils are made up of elected representatives of the people (the councilors).

“Local administration is found in a situation whereby the state, instead of conducting election, appoints political sympathisers and party members to occupy the positions of local government chairmen and the councilors, and who take instructions from the state government and rule according to the whim and caprices of the state government. That is local administration and the practice is an aberration; it is a serious development in the country.”