By Tajudeen A Tijjani, Kaduna-Nigeria.
The historical task and challenge of running effective local government administration in Nigeria has been delayed and remains unfulfilled by the rancorous behavior of state governors.
Their action and inactions had rendered the Third tier of government into obscurity and only appears in the statute book. Local government administration has become unimportant that it has failed to perform its constitutional rights.
The fulfilment of the local government roles to develop and take governance to the grassroots have become cumbersome and unachievable due to many other factors, among them the corrupt practice of state governors to allow the local government administration to breathe and touch the lives of their people have been highjacked.
Local government leadership today have been totally rubbished and humiliated that it has become unattractive, even to those who are prepared to serve with all honesty and commitment towards its liberation. The point however is for state governors to steer clear of local government fund’s from the Federal Government and allow them to be autonomous, with only overseeing statues accorded to State Government.
There is the urgent need to break the circle of lawless state governors, who have refused to allow local government to have access to their funds despite the Supreme Court Rulings over the issue of autonomy of local government which favour the local government administration. The point however, is that the Federal Government should ensure that State Governor’s upheld the judgement and allow the local government administration a free hand.
Since their immunity as governor’s did not cover a disobedience to Court order, the Federal Government should call the state governors to order and tell the implications of them disobeying the Supreme Court Judgement on the issue of autonomy of local government. In order words, the importance of local government administration in the polity cannot be over emphasized.
The signs of the insensibility of state governors towards the running of local government has rendered them useless and of no any value. Many local government headquarters across the country have been deserted, since no any activities are taking place.
Eight months after their swearing in, majority of the chairmen find it difficult to stay in their office, because some states chief executives have refused to allow them to perform their lawful responsibilities by staving them of funds.
More worrisome is the refusal of those state governors starving their local government administration to heed to Supreme Court Judgement eight months after the landmark pronouncement by the apex court of the nation.
The judgement followed a case instituted by the Federal Government and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation on the need for local government to be freed from imprisonment by state governors, who allegedly diverted local government fund’s with all reckless abandonment.
A broad consensus around the vital issue of making the local government irrelevant in the scheme of things
believe that such actions have contributed to many problems facing the country today. The youths in local government that should be engaged and reside in their respective location have been forced to move out to the city in search of jobs. These had contributed to the rise in different crimes we are witnessing today in the society.
I often wonder if or how some governors believe there can be absolute peace in their domains, when the bulk of the citizens who lives in local government are abandoned without any assistance from government? It is time the state governors realize that their jobs will become easy, when local government are allowed to function. That is not to say that there should not be supervision of their activities.
They are deprived of what they are entitled to and commensurate with their
new status as elected chairmen, vice-chairmen and councillors.
An authority in local government administration in Kaduna, Dr Mohammed Idris had said that the interfering in the financial independence of local government through arbitrary deductions and joint projects is unlawful and not acceptable. ‘As a student of local government administration and a proponent of separation among the three tiers of government, and that shortly after the exit of the immediate past in the case of our state, Kaduna, the local government have been stripped of its constitutional roles, and now left in decay and ignored ”
“I would unapologetically state that the model of local government in the immediate past goverment that helps significantly for the transformation of the grassroots are now missing”, he remarked.
Those who speaks with this reporter laments the current situation of the local government administration in the country as the third tiers of government that should be nearer to the people, have been reduced to nothing because of state governors overbearing influence and dictatorship
A Kaduna based legal practitioner and public commentator, Abubakar Alzubayar said the implications of disobeying the Supreme Court Rulings portends underdevelopment, which he said has been with the local government in the last twenty years.
According to him, section 7 of the constitution had conferred autonomy on the local government, but was changed during the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo third term saga inserted what is known as joint account between the state government and local government administration, which are evidently been misused allegedly by state governors.
He alleged that some state governors have come with another fraud to circumvent the Supreme Court Judgement by approaching their various house of assembly to put in place a memorandum of understanding between them and their local governments giving power to the governor to tamper with local government fund’s.
He said between 1999 and 2019, states like Anambra did not contest any election into the local government throughout the period, adding that today, Anambra and Oyo States have used another tactics to have power to embezzle the local government fund’s.
Barrister Alzubayar suggested that to make the local government administration full autonomous, the States Electoral Commission must be scrapped and the House of Assembly law on local government administration be amended.
As it is now, many of the local government chairmen were appointed by their governors, and there is nothing they can do to stop their alleged recklessness, he concluded.
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