[TRIBUNE] As state Houses of Assembly begin to scrutinise the 44 items recently amended by the National Assembly in the Nigerian Constitution, WALE AKINSELURE reports on areas of disagreement between states and union of workers at the third level of government.
After several calls and protests by individuals and groups, both the Senate and the House of Representatives, on March 1, voted in favour of granting financial and administrative autonomy to local governments. The approval came after consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (fifth alteration) Bills, 2022. In each of the two bills regarding the local government system, a local government council is to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.
Also, the bills aim to amend the constitution to repeal the state joint local government account and provide for a special account where all allocations due to the local government councils, from the federation account and state government shall be paid. Furthermore, the legislations also mandate each state to pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its Internally Generated Revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly. As regards administrative autonomy, the bill seeks to allow local governments to conduct their own elections.
The consistent yearn for local government autonomy is due to observations that the local government that is supposed to the third tier of government has become ineffective and has become subservient to the whims and caprices of the state governor. State governors seem to have reduced local governments to mere administrative units whereby the governors are responsible for sharing funds to local government. President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his indignation about the state of local government system in the country when during an Arise television interview, he narrowed down the question about restructuring to the treatment of local governments. President Buhari had also signed Executive Order 10 of 2020 which grants financial autonomy to local governments as well as state legislatures and judiciaries. Interestingly, this executive order was met with strong resistance from governors.
The local government system is further bastardised by situations where governors sack elected local government officials and appoint “caretakers” which are 100 percent loyal to them. Over time, groups that have led protests and calls for local government are the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE). Across the country, many state governments have usurped the functions of the local government, as enshrined in the constitution, under the guise that the local government is incapable to run its affairs.
States usurping LG functions
The 1999 Constitution in the Fourth Schedule assigns a number of responsibilities to local councils to include: collection of rates, radio and television licences; construction and maintenance of roads, streets, street lightings, drains and other public highways, parks, gardens, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the House of Assembly of a State; provision and maintenance of public conveniences, sewage and refuse disposal. Other constitutional functions of the local government are participation of local councils in the government of a State as respects the provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education; the development of agriculture and natural resources, other than the exploitation of materials; the provision and maintenance of health services. Contrary to constitutional provisions, isn’t it state governments across the country that are largely in charge of street lightings, sewage and refuse disposal, construction and maintenance of all kinds of roads, drains and public highways, development of agriculture and natural resources?
But, Section 7 of the same constitution ties the local government councils to the apron strings of the state governments by empowering states to legislate for their creation, structure, composition, finance and functions. In terms of financing, for example, the 1999 Constitution places the Local Councils under the control of the States. Section 162 (6) creates a “State Joint Local Government Account”, the definition of which is further provided in Sub- Sections 7 and 8 to which the state is given powers to pay local councils under its jurisdiction on “such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly … or as may be prescribed by the House of the State.” The ongoing constitutional amendment is being done to provide clarity and address its various contradictions.
1976, 1991 LG reforms
Various recommendations have been advanced to make the local government system effective. Among others, the conference committee on political restructuring and forms of government recommended that functions of local governments, contained in schedule 4 of the constitution should be transferred to the states subject to the power of the State Houses of Assembly to add or remove from the list. Discussions on the country’s local government system, many a time,
stem from the 1976 Local Government Reform. This reform established a uniform and single-tier system of government later entrenched in the 1979 constitution thereby giving it a full legal backing and recognition as a third tier of government after the Federal and State governments. While delivering a paper, Professor Akinlawon Mabogunje, who is a geographer, argued that the 1976 Local Government Reform chose to ignore the settlement system in Nigeria whereby people live either in urban or rural areas. A major change was effected in the structure of the local government system in 1991, when the Federal Government issued a decree titled: Local Government (Basic Constitutional and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Decree No. 23, aimed at extending the logic of the presidential system of government to the local government level. The main thrust of this new system was to introduce the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances into the Local Government system. With this arrangement, elected councillors were now to serve as the legislature of the local government which is headed by a Council Leader. The Executive now comprises the chairman, three to five Supervisors and the Secretary. The chairman, as chief Executive, can appoint supervisors either from among the councillors or from outside. On the surface, it appeared that Local Governments now had full
autonomy to consider and approve their annual budgets and to pass bye-laws without reference to the state governments. This would have represented real devolution of power to local governments, constituting them fully into a third tier of government and giving them the kind of autonomy yearned for.
But the reality has been different. The present system, according to Mabogunje, is that the local government has not been able to establish legitimacy which would enable it to generate revenue from its citizens. So far, the crave to have financial and administrative autonomy for local government enshrined in the constitution is only one hurdle gone as more hurdles are to be faced at the State Houses of Assembly. The battle for local government autonomy will be real as the state level as State Houses of Assembly wont to dance to the tune of the state governors will also be under pressure from interest groups and their constituents. Will the state governors be willing to let go of the local governments which they hold on to as their babies?
The governors, NULGE, speakers’ arguments
Just over the weekend, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, had at a meeting of the Conference of Speakers, held in Ibadan, expressed his fears about granting local government autonomy. He said he feared how local governments will get resources to manage their affairs, if granted full autonomy. Makinde said his facts and figures pointed to that local governments in urban areas may struggle to pay salaries of their staff let alone living up to their other duties and responsibilities. Makinde said: “I said to the local government people, here are the facts and figures. If we ask that the local government should have full autonomy, that whatever you get from the federal should go to the local government and you spend it, I said the local government in urban centres may not cover paying salaries of their local government staff alone. It is the reality. Until we are able to look at all the challenges coming from granting autonomy, how they will get resources, how they will be able to manage their affairs, we need stay at the middle of the road but we must discuss all of these.”
Countering Makinde’s position, President, NULGE, Mr Ambali Olatunji cautioned governors against expressing fears that local governments will not be able to pay workers’ salaries or attend to their affairs if granted autonomy. He said the union’s examination of data showed that federal allocation accruing to states was enough to take care of paying workers’ salaries let alone Internally Generated Resources (IGR). Pointing to how the local government was effective in the 1980s when it got fund directly, Ambali held that its only those who benefit from a corrupt system that will want the present statusquo to remain. He described as baffling the fact that the local government had been crippled such that it can no longer evacuate refuse, provide market stalls, address insecurity or provide employment opportunities for youths and women.
Ambali said: “It is a fallacy to say that local governments will not be able to pay their workers’ salaries if granted autonomy.
“We have data. We picked 15 states in Nigeria. We picked the monthly allocation from the federation account and picked the salaries of local government workers. Out of that 15 states, none of them was incapable of paying salaries. We brought out analysis of federal allocation to Oyo State for September 2021. Oyo State did not do any major recruitment to the local government system. Staff keep retiring, dying, which means the wage bill keeps going down.
“We picked Rivers State. Rivers has over 20,000 local government workers. Their wage bill is N2.5 billion. Oyo State has less than 10,000 workers. In that September, Oyo State got over N5 billion as federal allocation for local government alone and only N1 billion got to the local government. So, even if the workforce for Oyo is doubled to make it 20,000. The salary cannot be up to N2.5 billion. That means Oyo still has over N2 billion to play around with. Imagine the impact of N2 billion on the people of Oyo State.
“We are not even talking about Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), we are talking about allocation from the federation account alone. If you add the IGR, Oyo State can conveniently pay salaries, allow local government to be functional.
“We know those that benefit from corrupt system don’t desire change. That is why we keep sensitising people. We have seen two states that don’t touch the fund of local government. These are Jigawa and Rivers States.
“Remember that in the 80’s, local government used to get their fund directly and you can see governance at that level. Local government has vibrant revenue generating sources to enable the people get dividends of democracy.
“The law mandates that teachers salaries should be paid by both the state and local government. It is the State government alone that pays salaries and the local government lies there idle. The State governments are asking for more resources and powers from the federal government but they themselves are suppressing the local governments.”
Meanwhile, speakers of various state Houses of Assembly, at the conference in Ibadan, said the issue of local government autonomy may be subjected to public hearings, committees before they take decision on the bills in their various states. Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Mudasiru Obasa said the Assembly’s decision on two bills on local government autonomy will be preceded by to a lot of engagements with stakeholders including the governors, local government officials, fellow lawmakers and various segments of the public.
Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly, Honourable Abdullahi Bawa cautioned against notions that the state governors are not favourably disposed towards approving of local government autonomy. Bawa said: “It is too early to conclude that the governors are not favourably disposed to local government autonomy. When we engage our governors, we will get a better outcome. How do you take the money of a rural local government and support an urban local government? Let each local government have its own financial autonomy and let us allow the local governments to develop. One of issues arising from insecurity is because we have abandoned the local government system completely in terms of giving them financial autonomy.” Both Speaker of the Kano House of Assembly, Hamisu Ibrahim and his Cross River counterpart, Honourable Eteng Williams said they planned to hold public hearings on the issue of local government autonomy so as to take informed decision.
Meanwhile, consultant to the conference of Speakers, Mr John Mutu has argued that local governments will be strengthened if states free up more responsibilities to them. Mutu held that both local government areas in urban and rural areas can generate resources to cater for their affairs if states allow them access to taxes, direct access to their funds and access to several other legitimate revenue sources.
He, however, tasked state Houses of Assembly to put the 44 alterations to public hearings, while admonishing at a July ending deadline be set for transmission of the bills back to the National Assembly.