Poverty and state of perpetual convulsion in our society have contributed to make issues on local government administration a central matter since we made the choice to establish that tier of government in 1976. Those very young won’t know that the local government as we know it today was not exactly same when we got independence. The departing British colonialists left us with municipalities and district offices which were administered by civil servants. It was organic, had life, served community, roads were tarred or rehabilitated very quickly, bushes along highways were regularly tended and the sanitary inspectors were everywhere, ensuring that people acted in environmentally friendly manner.
A close study of that old structure will show it was a well thought out antidote to waste of lean finances. I have exhausted myself teaching fellow country and women I encounter at different fora that in classical political engineering, government doesn’t fight evil, negative trends, processes and behaviors, rather government solves them. There is a difference in both approaches: to fight like we love to do in our clime, we attack symptoms; for example, sacking, dismissing fall guys for specific offenses but never spare a thought for factors that give rise to the misconducts. We spend billions of scarce resources to shout and build institutions on corruption, gloat when we make examples of few unlucky ones, but we never take note that incidents of corruption rather than reducing keep soaring. This is because we never handle matters from the foundation.
Local governments were created under military administration, so not so much thought was given to the kind, what is suitable, what would be the result, particularly its content. Coming shortly after the Civil War those who advised the military to push for the brand we have now, clearly had narrow interest and objectives. Their first move was to atomize the Nigerian state to weaken ability to organize secession. The second is, they saw it as a clever way to gather more state resources for their people and area. These myopic groups never countenanced with the idea that easy money hardly motivates people to create visions and build up a productive base and without a productive base materials will not only waste, things gradually deteriorate to the point massive sufferings and dislodgments become the order of the day.
Those who pursued this line of action, hence the path they followed, which has brought us to where we are, a situation where so much funds go into local governments monthly and yet underdevelopment has been the lot of people in those locations. We now agree that the results we have are not in tandem with the objectives so the question has been what is to be done. In the bid to find an answer, we have had to deal with blame games, cacophony of voices and prescriptions. Not a few Nigerians blame the state governors. Are they part of the trouble? Yes. Do I blame them? No. Many Nigerians think the mess the local governments have turned out to be begins and ends with state governors, even our president who has anti-corrupt as a cardinal policy think this way too.
As the heat of restructuring hit him, he found temporary protection on the issue of autonomy for local governments. If they had autonomy, President Buhari said, most of our national challenges won’t be. I don’t know how much sense that makes but I have a strong feeling issues involved are more than state governors taking the money meant for that tier of government or question of autonomy under prevailing circumstances. Three tiers of government on its own is a recipe for confusion, that is if I take the liberty to leave out dwelling on the concept of federalism and what it entails on general administrative structure for the larger society. If we had federalism, states should deal with smaller delineation. They create, control to acceptable degree and fund.
If local governments have full autonomy as envisaged by those pushing for that kind of structure in place would local governments be totally on their own or would there still be a form of linkage to states? What would be the extent of this linkage and relationship with state and federal governments? What about discipline? Who does that between the state and federal government? Definitely local governments can›t be asked to report to the central government, that would amount to creating something totally different with attendant serious problems this will surely throw up. See the contradictions in current arrangement; the constitution provides for local government autonomy yet leaves vital services at the jurisdiction of states. Who should make laws for good governance at the level as well as conduct elections through state electoral bodies into public offices in the local governments? There is also the big issue of “joint accounts” between local governments and states. The damages inflicted by joint accounts can’t be quantified; in fact it seems to be at the root of invasion of that tier of administration.
These provisions took away through the back door what the framers of the autonomy law for local governments tried to give them from the front door. They envisaged autonomy but the regulations they added alongside destroyed any sense of autonomy and left the society with a behemoth that has become a thorn in the flesh. As it is, it is not enough to shout and take ill digested measures in the bid to keep autonomy, what is needed is sit down to study the concept and come up with what is appropriate for political cum social, 4economic development of our society. If it is a return to what the colonialists left us with, or allowing states to decide what they want or still running with the idea of autonomy but giving it structures that can guarantee true independence, then we agree and follow up in terms of new laws drawn in line with our recent unpleasant experiences. There are also other crucial matters like who conducts election into the the local government system; joint accounts and discipline are serious matters.
What to do ought not to be an issue because we have examples of those who have gone ahead of us, but it has become an issue here because every matter must be viewed from religious and ethnic prisms and gains. For now the political class should hold a summit and agree that governors should hands off funds accruing to that level of power. We should also insist they improve on the quality of person thrust forward for leadership at that level of service. Making it a haven for miscreants and mean people who go there to enforce the will of their kpletomaniac benefactors has not helped anybody and will never help, rather it will take into the abyss from the precipice we already are. We need to pull back. Buhari must know there is more to do than to be mouthing autonomy and barking orders without depth.