Bringing back local government autonomy

Recently, the issue of local government autonomy has taken a front burner in national discourse. Political observers are the view that the heightened interest is not unconnected with the parlous state of the country’s economy brought about by the dwindling revenue from crude oil sales which also has adversely affected the financial accruals to both state and local governments. Before now, any demand for local government autonomy, even by constitution experts had been vehemently resisted by state governors who see the third tier of government as appendages of their respective bureaucracies.
This sad development has been the norm since the country’s return to democratic governance in 1999. Reason for the usurpation of local government autonomy by state chief executives is not far to see. Governors see the fund accruing to them from the federation account as free handouts that must be expropriated and spent at their behests. Hence, they employ all manner of political intrigues to subvert and control local government administrations in their respective jurisdictions. It is therefore not surprising that governors are using State Independent Electoral Commissions(SIEC)to organise and rig local government elections in favour of their parties and in return fill all elective positions with their political surrogates.
Such meddling has over time weakened and whittled the autonomy of local governments and by extension their capacities to represent the interests of the grassroots. This is in contradiction with their constitutional role. Constitutionally, local governments are established to provide services and oversee such functions as collection of tax and rates, issuance of licenses for vehicle, hawkers, television, bicycles and naming of streets. Also, they provide and maintain local markets, registration of death, birth and marriages that occur within area of jurisdiction, provision of libraries and schools, maintenance of healthcare facilities, customary courts that handle issues that pertain minor disputes, divorce, minor traffic offences, disagreement over land and making recommendations to both the federal and state government.
Unfortunately, most of these functions have been usurped the state governments and through the instrumentality of State, Joint Local Government Accounts (SJLGAs) have taken control of funds meant for the third tier of government. Today, local governments are no more than appendages of the states and serve at their pleasure. It is sad to observe that most of the chairmen and councilors running these councils seem not to appreciate their responsibilities to the people. Many of them lack the education, vision, experience and passion to render service to the people but are out for self aggrandizement.
This state of affairs is the result of political interference in the election of those who manage local government administration. The truth remains that the Nigerian federation is centre dominated. Consequently, the socio-political, economic and the national bureaucratic environments are all centripetal and hardly serve the interests of the local governments. That is why we are calling on the Buhari administration to return the autonomy of local governments to enable them serve the interests of their constituencies.