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In a bid to strengthen local government administration in the country, President Bola Tinubu has urged the 36 state governors to hand over the local government allocation to the elected officials in the 774 councils in compliance with the Supreme Court judgement on fiscal federalism. The President, who spoke at the National Caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said there would be no autonomy for councils without funded mandate.
The President also assured Nigerians and the international community that Nigeria will establish state police to tackle the nation’s rising security challenges. Tinubu charged the governors to get ready for the implementation of state police as a solution to the growing insecurity. He believes that state police will strengthen our security system. We agree with the president on that score. It is no longer in doubt that the extant centralized policing has failed to address our intractable security challenges.
Moreover, prominent Nigerians had made a case for state police. Although some Nigerians have reservations over the establishment of state police, the rising criminality across the country has made it imperative. One of the arguments against the creation of state police is that state governors will abuse it. This point should not be overlooked. On the contrary, the proponents of state police have also argued that even the federal police force is not free from abuse.
We believe that with adequate laws to check its abuse, creation of state police remains the panacea to our security challenges. Therefore, we urge the governors to rise to the challenge and embrace the establishment of state police. At the same time, the implementation of financial autonomy for local governments will strengthen our fragile democracy and enhance our security.
The control of the funds of the councils has vitiated rural development, increased poverty at the grassroots and heightened insecurity in our forests and other ungoverned spaces. This can explain why President Tinubu has insisted on financial autonomy for the councils in line with the Supreme Court judgement of last year.
We recall that the Supreme Court had in July last year ruled that local government allocations to the councils must be paid directly into their accounts instead of the State Joint Local Government Account, which remains the current practice. Since the financial autonomy for LG verdict, all the governors have refused to obey it. The seven-member panel of Supreme Court had unanimously held that the local governments should begin to receive their allocations directly from the Accountant-General of the Federation. Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the lead judgement, ruled that it was illegal and unconstitutional for governors to receive and withhold funds allocated to local government areas in their states.
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The apex court also ruled that the administration of local governments by caretaker committees is illegal. It is strange to the 1999 Constitution (as amended). In the same vein, Section 7 (1) of the Constitution states clearly that “the system of local government by democratically elected government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every state shall subject to Section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.”
Unfortunately, the appointment of caretaker committees to oversee the affairs of local governments by the governors clearly vitiates this constitutional provision. All the local government elections conducted so far by the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) in most of the states are no more than mere coronation exercise for preferred candidates of the ruling political party in the state.
The scenario has led to incessant calls for the abrogation of SIEC and replacing it with a neutral body to oversee the conduct of council elections. Some Nigerians have suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be allowed to conduct the council elections too. But the matter has not been concluded. Since 1999 when the present democratic dispensation came into existence, the third tier of government has been abused by the governors, who control the funds.
The governors behave as if we have only two tiers of government—federal and state. They all believe that the third tier of government is subsumed under the state government. This can explain why the governors have controlled the affairs of the councils through caretaker committees or the so-called elected officials. As long as the governors control SIEC and determine elected officials of the councils, real governance and development at the grassroots will suffer stillbirth.
Therefore, we urge the governors to listen to the president and heed his timely advice on obeying Supreme Court ruling on financial autonomy for local governments as well as the implementation of state police. We believe that their frank handling of the two vital issues will ensure the quick development of our rural areas. It will also help to tackle our security challenges.
