With recent reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the Fourth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution giving total financial autonomy to States’ Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary in the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), we believe this is a good development that will not only strengthen the nation’s democracy, but it will also make States’ House of Assembly more independent and not stooges of State Governors, and the Judiciary in the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT from considering State Governors as their Masters.
However, we believe there is one vital arm of the Government which the Presidency and the National Assembly, forgot to include in this equation of financial autonomy – and that is the Local Government Councils across the Federation. In other words, there is expedient need for the Federal Government to also okay financial autonomy for the Local Government Councils across the nation, if we are to achieve the desired results in this regard.
This is hinged on a lot of factors. Top most on the list is the fact that Local Government Councils’ Chairmen and their Councilors have over the last three decades become more like ‘appointees’ that are strategically placed by the State Governors and state-political god-fathers under fraudulent elections, usually conducted by the so-called State Electoral Commissioners. And when Council Chairmen and Councilors are often ‘appointed’ or supposedly ‘elected-via-the-influence’ of State Governors, there is no way the Local Government Councils can perform their statutorily roles. When we consider the ‘do-or-die’ atmosphere that are usually noticed before, during and after Local Government Council elections in Nigeria, we would then understand why we are making the above statement of fact. And for the way forward, we have severally advised the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the National Assembly and the relevant authorities of INEC to make required Constitutional readjustments in the country’s electoral process that will allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be the only body that will be conducting Local Government Elections as well across the country, and not the various State Independent National Electoral Commissions as usual.
To add to this, there is need for the Local Government Councils to have financial autonomy as well. It is evidently sad that Local Government Councils in Nigeria, reputed to be the closest to the people and the grassroots organs of the Federal Government, have degenerated into one of the most permissive ‘conduit pipes’ for pilfering the nation’s treasury. In fact, most of the public funds meant for the Councils are today used to ‘settle various political interests’ within a State. Not only that, they have become tools and avenues through which State Governments and big-party-wigs/politicians can misappropriate, mismanage and abuse their public offices to the detriment of the grassroots, all in the name of party-politics-of-interests. That has been the dilemma we have with Nigeria’s Local Government Councils and their statutory functions.
Every now and then, we read of hundreds of millions of Naira that are channeled for Local Government administrations, and this is separate for the usual internal revenue they get. Yet, all around the grassroots levels are sights and sounds of abject poverty, deteriorating environment that lacks basic amenities and sub-human living conditions of pain and misery. There is no single development stride that justifies the huge public funds spending claimed by most local government council chairmen and their councilors across the country.
If according to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, who, while confirming the subject development, explained that with the signing into law of the Constitution Alteration Bill, the State Houses of Assembly would now operate like the National Assembly, where Federal Ministry of Finance automatically transfers budgetary allocation direct to the account of the NASS; and that the Judiciary in the States would now enjoy similar financial independence, as their budgetary allocations would no longer go through the budgeting process of the Executive Arms at the State level, but would be transferred directly to the account of the judiciary – it is therefore imperative for the Local Government Councils across the country to given the node to also enjoy such financial independence.
Zik Gbemre, JP.
National Coordinator
Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)
