LG Autonomy: Anxiety as Governors make fresh plots to control Council chairmen

By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

It is not yet uhuru for Nigeria’s 774 local government areas. Though State governors hailed the Supreme Court’s July 11 historic ruling that freed the LGAs from the financial control of state governors by conferring financial autonomy on them, which means direct federal allocation to them, Daily Sun has learnt that the state Chief Executives are not yet ready to give up their grips on the funds of their various states council areas. There are indications that the governors now clandestinely devise various mechanisms to ensure continued access to the allocations accruing to the councils.

For example, Daily Sun has been informed that in a number of states in the southern part of the country where local government elections have been scheduled to hold, the governors have anointed persons who they believe can easily allow them a free reign on the allocations as the next chairmen of such councils.

“In a particular state in the Southeast where council election is set to take place soon, the governor, not ready to let go of the state’s local government allocations, has personally selected his close associates, relations, friends, fellow church members, in-laws among others as candidates and subsequently as the next council bosses and they have already pledged that their LGA will run a sort of joint account with the state government”, an impeccable source familiar with the antics of the governor told Daily Sun.

In the case of states where local government elections had taken place before the Supreme Court ruling, the governors, sources reveal, are blackmailing the council chairmen with suspension and denial of re-election ticket unless they agree to an arrangement whereby a certain percentage of their councils’ allocations  are accessed by the state governments.

Some Governors, Daily Sun has been told, are also using the carrot and stick tactics to brow beat the council chairmen into acquiescing to their schemes. For instance, in one of the Northern states, a governor told council chairmen that those of them who stubbornly embrace financial autonomy for their councils will be in office only for a term but those who elect to maintain collaborative or joint control of their council’s funds with the state government will enjoy second term or ascend to higher political positions such as the Senate and House of Representatives in the next political dispensation.

Similarly, at the behest of some of the governors, various state Houses of Assemblies, a reliable source has informed Daily Sun, are secretly working on laws that will see local government chairmen, legally share their council’s allocations with the state governments without running foul of the Supreme court ruling.

“In one of the Southwest states, the House of Assembly there has already concluded plans to pass into law what it termed, “Local and State Governments Contributory Development Fund” and the intriguing part is that this “Fund” will be domiciled in the state Government accounts.

“I can also tell you authoritatively that many other state Houses of Assembly, at the prompting of the governors, are working on similar contraptions under different nomenclature that aim to allow the governors unfettered access albeit through backdoor,  to the councils allocations”, the source said.

Sensing the possibility of state governors devising means to continue to corner local government funds to the detriment of infrastructural developments in the grassroots, a socio-political pressure group, Igbo Eze North Progressives which champions youth empowerment and poverty alleviation in Igbo-Eze North local government area of Enugu state, in a recent statement signed by one of its elders, Dr Mathias Omeh, and Convener, Ike Onu cautioned the governors not to torpedo the new lease of life the apex court has given to council areas through obnoxious laws in connivance with state Houses of Assemblies.

“There is the possibility of state governors using the instrumentality of Assembly members(stooges) to make laws that might inhibit the Local government autonomy from yielding the expected results.

“The Progressives group advises both the governors, local government chairmen and other persons in leadership positions to view leadership from the perspective of humanity”, Dr Omeh said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government, Daily Sun learnt, are aware of the antics of the governors involved and is keeping a close watch on them.

“The Federal Government is considering a number of options to force the governors involved to backtrack in their sinister scheme to continue to spend local government allocations through the backdoor.

“One of the options is to withhold the allocation of any state that tries to circumvent the Supreme court ruling on financial autonomy for LGAs”, an Aso Rock source told Daily Sun.

On the other hand, to dissuade council chairmen from falling prey to the governors’ devises or conniving with them to fritter away allocations to their councils under whatever guise, the Federal Government has made it clear that the chairmen will be held accountable for the allocations and will be jailed for any misuse.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), at the 17th-anniversary annual lecture event of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria in Abuja, last month reminded the council chairmen that they have no immunity and would be jailed if they tamper with the funds meant for the development of their areas.

Fagbemi: “Well, we have a situation on our hands; I know that it is still there; the conduct of elections is to be undertaken by the states.

“But the distinction is this: don’t forget, the governors have immunity, the local government council chairmen or councillors, they have no immunity, so they have to choose between dealing with the funds of the local government as they like and risking going to jail. The choice is theirs (LG chairmen).

“If they want to tamper with these funds and end up in jail, it is their choice. If they want to write their names in letters of gold, activities like construction or road upgrades must be returned to the local government. They don’t all have to come to Abuja.

“If they stay at the local government, we will be able to reduce the level of insecurity that we have in Nigeria today. What obtains offshore is that the security agents are able to perform optimally because of information that comes to them from members of the public and usually it is from the grassroots.”

Political analysts opine that governors, especially first term governors who will be seeking re-election in 2027 as well as second term governors who want to remain political godfathers in their states after their tenures and remotely control their successors are desperate for the control of the councils and their allocations. “The Supreme court judgement was a rude shock to the Governors, they least expected it and many of them are not happy about the development because if the councils enjoy unfettered financial autonomy as ordered by the apex court, many of them(the Governors) will significantly lose political clout and financial backbone to seek re- election or assume the role of godfathers after their tenures.

“So, the plots you are seeing for the control of the councils and their allocations even with the Supreme court judgement are all about acquiring enough war chest via LGA funds to remain politically relevant”, Dr George  Tariye, a social affairs commentator told Daily Sun.

Notedly, the Nigerian 1976 local government reforms brought about a significant reconfiguration of the Nigeria’s local government system. Before the reforms, the country’s local government system was highly centralized and dominated by state governments. The reforms were intended to decentralize power and authority thus bringing government closer to the people.

Under the reforms, local governments were granted greater autonomy and authority to manage their own affairs. They were saddled with responsibility for a range of functions, including primary healthcare, education, and water supply. In furtherance of the reforms the number of local government areas was also increased, from 301 to 774 by the successive military juntas that held sway.

One of the elegant features of the reforms was the introduction of democratic elections in the local government administration system. Each local government area was to be headed by an elected chairman, who would work with an executive council made up of elected councillors. The reforms were designed to ensure greater accountability and transparency in local government. The Nigerian 1976 local government reforms had significant impacts on governance in Nigeria by helping to bring government closer to the people, and to empower local communities to take charge of their own development. To concretize the reforms and strengthen the local government system, the 1979 and 1999 constructions were to recognize the local government as the third tier of government in the country, with the federal and state governments as first and second tiers of governments respectively.

However, over the years, local government areas in the various states existed only in name as many state governments virtually turned them into glorified entities. Funds meant for the council areas were paid into joint accounts operated between the councils and the state government and from this account, most state governors only hand out peanuts to the councils.

In the allocation schedule, the Federal Government gets 52.68%, and states get 26.72%. In comparison, LGs get 20.60% of the country’s monthly revenue allocated by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) which operates under the Presidency, and disbursed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

While the states receive theirs untampered, the councils don’t get theirs directly as it is paid into joint accounts with the states. This was the situation that prevailed till May this year when the Federal Government approached the Supreme Court praying it to grant financial autonomy to the LGAs and July 11 when the apex court handed out the historic ruling.

In the ruling, the Supreme Court also barred governors from dissolving democratically elected Local Government councils in the country, saying doing so would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution.

Justice Emmanuel Agim who read the lead judgement said: “It is the position of this court that the federation can pay local government allocations directly to the local governments or through the states. In this case, since paying them through the states has not worked, justice demands that local government allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the local governments.” He said: “I hold that the states’ retention of local government funds is unconstitutional.”

Meanwhile, a cross section of Nigerians believe that granting the LGAs financial autonomy without granting them administrative autonomy means that the governors will continue to ride roughshod over them. Barrister Chijioke Edeoga, a former House of Reps member and 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate for Enugu State in last year’s election shares this sentiment.

According to him, “given the clear and present possibility that the intendment of the Supreme Court judgment which is transparency and accountability in the use of local government resources by duly elected officers of local governments might still be manipulated by governors in whose powers it still is to determine who gets elected as Chairmen of the councils.

“Riding on the wave of nationwide acceptance of the judgment of the Supreme Court therefore, the National Assembly should be made to initiate and fast-track amendments to the 1999 Constitution to delist all mentions of state electoral commissions and push the responsibility for this to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“If this is not done, judgment of the Supreme Court on that matter will be seen as inchoate, thus providing a lacuna that would be further exploited to the detriment of the functional financial fate of local governments.

“To this end, an Executive Bill to excise Section 197 1(b) of the Constitution which created the state Independence Electoral Commissions should be initiated by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation. Section 153 (1) which created the INEC should also be amended to fully vest the national elections management body with the powers to conduct elections to local government councils.”