Granting autonomy to local governments
Recently, the Conference of 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (Conference 57) Lagos State endorsed the interference of state governments in the running of local government affairs in the country. The Conference based its endorsement on section 162(6) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that each state “shall maintain a special account to be called State Joint Local Government Account into which shall be paid all allocations of the state from the Federation Account and government of the state”.
We are vehemently opposed to Conference 57 and state that its resolution is not only anti-people, the meddling of state governments in the affairs of local governments has continued this tier of government the much needed development.
It is pertinent to remind the Conference that the Nigeria Constitution 1999(as amended), states that local governments are to function as the third tier of government, after the federal and state governments respectively. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Presently, Nigeria has 774 local governments, which are vested with the responsibility of bringing developments to millions of Nigerians at the grass roots. Drafters of the constitution took cognisance of the fact that since majority of Nigerians live in the rural areas, there is need to establish an administration that would bring government to closer to them.
The constitution is also aware that in bringing development to this class of Nigerians, those invested with the responsibility must be given the financial and political independence to discharge their duties. Unfortunately, the local government system has been so undermined that it can no longer effectively play its role as an agent of development at the community level in the country. This is despite the huge allocations made to this tier of government from the Federation Account.
It has been alleged that some state governments frequently divert most of the funds meant for the councils to other purposes, instead of the development of the councils. This was possible because the funds for the local councils were paid from the Federation Account into the state and local government joint accounts that are controlled by the state governments which are either misappropriated, misapplied or diverted outright into private coffers without a whimper either from the council officials or the state legislatures.
Today, majority of the local governments are devoid of any modicum of development. Rather, poverty is increasing at the local level as people are denied access to the basic necessities of life such as potable water, functional schools, primary health care services, electricity, feeder roads, etc. This is not the way of democracy. It cannot be allowed to continue.
It bears repeating that before the military incursion into politics in 1966, the country’s local government system was very functional and effective, as the issue of security, agriculture and jobs creation were actually being addressed. Therefore, Nigeria must return autonomy to local governments if we are to address the challenge in our economy, polity and social life. We therefore recommend autonomy for local governments in order to ensure that the dividends of democracy get to the people at the grassroots.
