Autonomy for Local Government (LG), which is the third tier of government in Nigeria, is one of the cardinal issues listed for consideration in the current effort of the National Assembly to further review the 1999 Constitution to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the Nigerian people.
As a way of ensuring that Nigerians are completely carried along in the exercise, both chambers of the federal legislature in November 2012 held public sessions and public hearings to get the people’s input on all the items to be considered for review and amendment. The House of Representatives held the people’s public sessions across the 360 federal constituencies, while the Senate conducted public hearings in the six geo-political zones of the country.
Reports at the end of the exercise by the Green and Red chambers of the National Assembly clearly indicated that majority of Nigerians (both the high and the low in the society) are in total support of the strengthening of local government councils via autonomy. It was indeed the only item that got the ‘yes vote’ from participants in all the 360 federal constituencies. Similarly, various speakers at the zonal public hearings spoke very strongly in favour of LG autonomy.
Unfortunately, the recent outburst by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has shown that the governors are mainly the only group that do not think there is need for any form of autonomy for the effective and efficient running of the local government administration. NGF chairman, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, reportedly said they (governors) will do everything possible as a pressure group to stop lawmakers (state and federal) from granting autonomy to local governments.
Notwithstanding the whys and wherefores propounded by the NGF for kicking against the agitation for independent LGs, informed Nigerians know the real motive behind their stance on the matter. It is a known fact that state governments are in the habit of emasculating local governments under their control, thereby reducing them to mere appendages against their recognition as the third tier of government in the Constitution.
The governors have continued to take advantage of the deficiency in the Constitution, where even though local councils are acknowledged as a tier of government, framers of the Constitution failed to give them the full autonomy needed to operate as such. Local governments are diametrically subjected to the control of the state governments, in a manner that they really cannot do anything on their own. And this, in the views of most Nigerians, has adversely affected development at the local council level.
Reacting to the position of the NGF, Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, NurudeenAbatemi-Usman said there was no cause for alarm. According to the Senator, representing KogiCentral Senatorial District, the governors do not have the constitutional power to hinder the granting of autonomy to LGs in the on-going constitution review process.
Abatemi-Usman, whose bill seeking for financial autonomy for local governments had scaled through second reading and was referred to the Senate Committee on Constitution Review in March last year, argued that of all the items listed for consideration, nothing could be more necessary than LG autonomy.
He observed that the operation of the state/local government joint account as currently practiced was an aberration that must be corrected in the interest of Nigerians, regardless of the position of the governors. His words: “I have always been an advocate of autonomy for local governments. This was what prompted me to put up a bill for their financial autonomy when I became a Senator in 2011 to free them from the stranglehold and claws of the state governors.
I am very much happy that the entire Nigerian people have seen the need for local governments to be granted autonomy, as reflected in the public people’s sessions held by the House of Representatives in the 360 federal constituencies and the public hearing conducted by the Senate in the six geo-political zones.
Therefore, the people’s desire will definitely prevail over that of the governors. How can they (governors) stand against the wish of the generality of Nigerians, who elected them into office?”
Minister of Interior, Abba Moro had equally lent his voice to the debate on local government autonomy in an interview. An expert in local government administration, Moro was a council chairman for about eight years and one-time chairman of the Benue State chapter of Association of local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).
Even the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, who was once a governor, is on the side of the people on the debate for LG autonomy. I think the President understands that it is not about what obtains in other part of the world, as posited by Amaechi, the NGF boss, but what the people who elected him into office are asking for.
It is my hope therefore that members of the National Assembly and State Assemblies, who are constitutionally empowered to effect changes in the Constitution on behalf the people, would not pander to the whims and caprices of the governors, in their Machiavellian move to ensure continued emasculation of the local governments.
The legislators must know that the people hold them in high esteem. And so, any attempt to disappoint them (the Nigerian people)in order to favour the governors may lead to loss of trust and confidence.
— Jegede, a media practitioner wrote from Abuja