For almost all of the last 25 years that Nigeria has been under democratic governance, state governors have been superintending over the activities and finances of the local government areas (LGAs) in their domain. The governors are the pre-eminent determinant of the bearing of states, for good or for bad.
At the time when the Fourth Republic took off in 1999 and for a while, the local government system was, to a reasonable extent, alive and well. LGAs had some resources available to them and so across the country they executed various development projects within their respective areas. The governors were, without doubt, the overlords of the larger territories that the states are, but the local government chairman meaningfully existed as the lords of the manor.
Somewhere along the line, during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, either as a part of political trade-off, or due to pressure from the governors, LGAs were parcelled over to the governors totally. Thus did LGAs as entities with some claim to independent existence cease to exist. The governors not only swallowed up the local government areas, they ensured, almost to the last man, that local governments were obliterated in all practical reckoning.
Initially, some of the governors who wanted to look good as democrats, arranged what was presented as LGA elections and respected a set tenure for the officials thrown up in those electoral contrivances. In due course, the majority of the governors stopped pretending and wasting everybody’s time. They simply stopped the meaningless mock LGA elections and resorted to enthroning caretaker officials, the euphemistic term for delegated errand boys of their excellencies, in the hinterland.
LGA caretaker committee officers have no clear or respected tenure. They have no independent resources. They are, by duty, expected to be not at their duty posts in their LGA but around the government house in state capital, where they are often found loitering around, awaiting one assignment or another from the master. In many instances, the LGA caretaker committee chairman and his supposed council members are a step or steps behind designated assistants to the governor. Their appointment is terminated any time the governor so desires. Of course, the Federation Account continued to make allocation to local government areas.
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) did not help matters. It did not define the place of the local government unambiguously. That invariably makes LGAs subject to manipulation by both the federal and state governments.
As it is, really, the common reference to the local government as the third tier of government in Nigeria, is no more than a moniker, an alias. This must be an administrative tier with serious tears. The coming of Bola Tinubu as President seems set now to shake up the unsettled profile of the LGA.
The ruling last week by the Supreme Court, which granted autonomy to the LGAs, has thrown up more questions than answers about the local government system in Nigeria. In truth, the Supreme Court judgment has settled nothing, except that which the federal government wants to settle. The judgment has simply raised new issues. Unfortunately, the other arm of government that should have been expected to effectively resolve the contentious issues is not exactly ready, or willing at the moment, to assert its own independence, not to talk of resolving the problem of the status of another entity.
The immediate question that arises from the jubilation, contrived or real, in many quarters that the Supreme Court judgment of last week granted autonomy to the local government areas is, autonomy from who? If the Supreme Court ruling truly marks freedom of the LGAs from the states, the next questions become, who subjugated the LGAs to the states in the first place? Was it the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Or was it a lesser authority? When? Or did the states colonize the LGAs and take possession by crook or by force? Then, who becomes the new master of the LGAs after the old masters have been chased away? The federal government?
The framers of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did not do well in handling the status of the local government areas. Take a look at Chapter 1, Part 1.7 : “The system of local government by democratically elected local government council 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 function of such councils.”
Also look at Section 162 (5): “The amount standing to the credit of local government councils in the Federation Account shall also be allocated to the states for the benefit of their local government councils on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly”.
Then see Section 162 (6); “Each State shall maintain a special account to be called State Joint Local Government Account into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the state from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State”.
There is no doubt from all these provisions that an umbilical cord ties the local councils to the states. So then, can the LGAs really have autonomy from the states?
But clearly, the states and their governors have not done well over time. They have been like foster parent who grossly abuse a minor handed over to him to take care of. In such reprehensible instances, the social welfare agency can intervene to forcefully extricate the poor child from such an abusive foster parent. That exactly, is what has happened.
As it appears, the guilt of the States and the governors is responsible for their inability to even stand up to protest the Supreme Court judgment that have divested States of any control of the finances of LGAs, including even maintain the Joint Local Government Account, that is provided for in the Constitution. It is such a shame.
Pathetically now, the governors, all of them, are tongue tied. They cannot protest a Supreme Court judgment that clearly stretched the boundaries of the court’s powers. The reaction of the governors has been interesting, if not disgusting. Some say the judgment is a distraction (from what?). Some say, the judgment is fine by them because they have always supported local government autonomy (Really?). Yet, others simply pretend that they have not heard anything and so refuse to say anything. The Governors Forum as a body, says that the excision of control of LGA finances from the control of the States takes away burden from them. Some burden, indeed.
Every policy of governments in Nigeria is calibrated according to electoral value and politics of regime survival. The Supreme Court judgment, is, without doubt, an extension of the policy thrust of the federal government, led by Tinubu. The judgment is not value-free. It is doubtful that it came purely to save the local government areas from rapacious State governors. Those who believe that the devil in the ruling will emerge in due course, may have spoken from knowing Nigeria.
In all this, the biggest let down is that the State governors are too afraid, or guilty, to even raise a voice, at least to seek further clarification on aspects of the ruling that run counter to the provisions of the Constitution in the relationship between States and local government finances. Such timid disposition of the governors in this matter, coupled with the current cheerleading inclination of the legislature, endangers constitutional development in the country.