Status of LGs in other lands ONE of the authorities usually cited by experts on constitutional matters is an Australian academic, late Sir Kenneth Clinton Wheare. In particular, his book entitled, Federal Government is regarded as a veritable reference material because of its clear and detailed and distinct analyses on the concept and principles of federation. He provides answers to common teasers as what is federal government, when is it appropriate, how should it be organised, how it works, and so on, using the United States, Canada, India and a few other federal constitutions as cases studies. One fundamental conclusion of Wheare is that a Federal Government is more about a coordinate relationship between the centre and states. His submission underpins the fact that federalism is a form of government wherein the constitution provides that power is divided or shared between a central form of government and regional governments like states, in which case local councils are subsumed in the latter. Nigeria’s federation, which is almost 100 years old, experimented with a parliamentary system of government when the country attained self rule in 1960. Local councils were subsumed under the then regional government. The system was replaced with a presidential arrangement in the 1979 Constitution in Second Republic and the practice has subsisted since 1999 but with ranging controversy on the status on local governments. The hoopla has become more pronounced lately because of three major factors, one of which is the abysmal failure of local council to serve as catalysts for grassroots development. Another reason is the subjugation of that level of government by states by imposition of caretaker committees as opposed to a democratic election of the officials as enshrined in the constitution. The other highly controversial factor is the gross abuse by state governments of the Local Government Joint Account Committee [JAC], which has triggered calls for full autonomy for local governments in the country. The abuse also necessitated the suggestion last year by the chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Mr. Elias Mbam that the JAC should be abolished to ensure the autonomy, transparency and accountability of local government administration. Section 7 (6) [b] of the Nigerian Constitution stipulates that, “The House of Assembly of a state shall make provision for the statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils within the state.” The same documents states that, “The National Assembly shall make provisions for statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils in the Federation.” One of such advocates of full autonomy for local government is a former Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] governorship candidate in Lagos State, Dr. Ade Dosunmu, who believes said, “Within the context of stimulating development through the participatory governance at the grassroots, autonomy therefore becomes very crucial to imbue transparency, accountability and necessary oversights for managing resources.” According to him, ”Autonomy in relative sense would also translate into political engagement for the people because some semblance of democratic culture, rather than the roguish emasculation of the electoral process as manifested by the meddlesomeness of political overlords at the state level, would have been significantly addressed.” In the same vein, a House of Representatives member, Hon. Tajudeen Ayo Yusuf, said while the constitution expressly recognised local governments as the third tier of government, it failed to make it autonomous like the federal or state level. He said, “It is clearly an aberration. It negates the spirit and principles of the constitution in relation to the recognition of the three tiers of government as distinct.” However, this and other arguments have been consistently punctured by some legal luminaries and state governors such as that of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, who recently observed that the principle of federalism only recognizes federal and state as the principal partners in a federal marriage. He queried, “How was the local government administration about 25 years ago? Outside Nigeria, which other country does allocate money to local governments? There can’t be three tiers of governments in a federal system of government. There is no provision for local government in a federal structure. It is only the state and federal governments that exist in the federal system.” One pertinent question the advocates of autonomy have challenged to provide an answer is why local government should have continued to be entitled to federal allocation if it is not recognized as the third tire of government in the country. These claims and counter-claims for local government autonomy has therefore made it imperative for a close look into what obtains in other countries that appear to have a semblance of the Nigerian federal arrangement. CANADA A municipal government in Canada is a local council authority which provides local services, facilities, safety and infrastructure for communities. It has three levels of government; federal, provincial and municipal with about 3,700 municipal governments in place. The municipal governments are subdivisions of their province. While the municipality has autonomy on most decisions, all by-laws passed by that municipal government are subject to change by the provincial government at any time. The types of municipal government are said to vary between provinces, although they all perform the same functions. The largest municipalities are usually called cities, and their governments’ city councils. Smaller governments are commonly called towns, villages, parishes, rural municipalities, townships orhamlets. Some may also be directly designated as municipalities rather than as a particular type of municipality, but this term is still considered inclusive of all local governments regardless of their status. The functions of municipal governments include: management of the local policing and firefighting stations, transportation, planning and development, finance and collecting municipality taxes. It also provides public utilities and other services, just as municipality police and fire stations; transportation are not uncommon as part of their functions. Most local governments are formed by a charter or act granted by the province or territory. Local governments are not mentioned in the Canadian Constitution other than to say they are responsibility of the provinces. Consequently, municipalities can be created, amalgamated, or disbanded at the whim of the provincial government which controls them. They are also limited in the amount of interaction they have with the federal government because this would infringe upon an area of provincial jurisdiction. Since each province is responsible for creating local governments in its own territory, the names, functions, and powers of local bodies vary widely across the country. Local governments generally have limited powers, namely creating local by-laws and taxation (property tax). In the country, 83 per cent of the municipal government revenue is raised through their own sources, while the majority of funding for the municipal governments comes from property taxes, just as additional funding sources include the sales of goods and services and tax transfers from the provincial government. UNITED STATES In the US, local government refers to governmental jurisdictions below the level of the states, each of which has at least two tiers of local government called counties and municipalities. In some states, counties are divided into townships. However, the types and nature of the municipal entities varies from state to state and many rural areas and even some suburban areas of many states have no municipal government below the county level. In other places, city and county functions are managed by a single municipal government. The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution made local government a matter of state rather than federal law, with special cases for territories and the District of Columbia. As a result, the states have adopted a wide variety of systems of local government. The US Census Bureau conducts the Census of Governments every five years to compile statistics on government organization, public employment, and government finances. The categories of local government established in this Census of Governments are a convenient basis for understanding local government in the United States. The categories are County Governments; Town or Township Governments; Municipal Governments and Special-Purpose Local Governments. County governments are organized local governments authorized in state constitutions and statutes. Counties and county-equivalents form the first-tier administrative division of the states. All the states are divided into counties or county-equivalents for administrative purposes, although not all counties or county-equivalents have an organized county government. Unlike the relationship of federalism that exists between the U.S. government and the states (in which power is shared), municipal governments have no power except what is granted to them by their states. However, the constitutional provisions of some states provide specific rights for municipalities and counties. State constitutions which allow counties or municipalities to enact ordinances without the legislature’s permission are said to provide home rule authority. AUSTRALIA Local government in that country is the third and lowest tier of government, administered by the states and territories which in turn are beneath the Commonwealth or federal tier. There is only one level of local government in all states, with no distinction such as counties and cities. At present, most local governments possess equivalent powers within a state. The local governing body is generally referred to as a council (Burwood Council or Casey City Council). The territories governed are collectively referred to as local government areas. There are currently 565 local councils in the country. Local government is an exclusive power of the states or territories and therefore the precise nature of councils referred to as local government can differ between each state or territory. Despite this, they occupy a similar role in each state. Although they are all essentially identical in function, Australian local governments have a variety of names, as the term local government area is used to refer collectively to all local governments regardless of status, whilst the local governing body itself is generally known as a council. Today, the styles borough, city, district, municipality, region, shire, town, community government, Aboriginal shire and Island are used in addition to areas/councils without a specific style. Almost all local councils have the same administrative functions and similar political structures, regardless of their naming, and retain a particular designation for historical reasons only. They will typically have an elected council and usually a mayor or shire president responsible for chairing meetings of the council. Local government powers are determined by state governments, and states have primary responsibility for funding and exclusive responsibility for supervision of local councils. An there is no explicit mention of local government at all in the Australian constitution, although they are mentioned in the constitutions of each of the six states. A 1988 referendum sought to explicitly insert mention of local government in the federal constitution but this was comprehensively defeated. Federal government interaction with local councils happens regularly through the provision of federal grants to help fund local government managed projects. Unlike local governments in many other countries, services such as police, fire protection and schools are provided by state or territory government, rather than by local councils. The councils’ chief responsibilities are usually provision of community facilities such as libraries and parks, maintenance of local roads, town planning and development approvals, and local services such as waste disposal. These are financed by collection of local land taxes known as rates, and grants from the state and Commonwealth governments. GERMANY Germany comprises 16 states: 10 states of the former West Germany and five new states of the former East Germany, and Berlin, the current capital. The Basic Law for the German Republic divided the authority between the federal government and the states with the general principle governing relations. Thus, the federal government can exercise authority only in those areas specified in the Basic Law, which has divided the federal government’s legislative responsibilities into exclusive powers, concurrent powers, and framework powers. The exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the federal government extends to defense, foreign affairs, immigration, transportation, communications, and currency standards. The federal and state governments share concurrent powers in several areas, including civil law, refugee and expellee matters, public welfare, land management, consumer protection, public health, and the collection of vital statistics. In the areas of mass media, nature conservation, regional planning, and public service regulations, framework legislation limits the federal government’s role to offering general policy guidelines, which the states then act upon by means of detailed legislation. The areas of shared responsibility for the states and the federal government were enlarged by an amendment to the Basic Law in 1969, which calls for joint action in areas of broad social concern such as higher education, regional economic development, and agricultural reform. Unlike in other federations, the German states retain the right to act on their own behalf at the international level. They retain the status of subjects of international law, independently from their status as members of a federation. This unique status is enshrined in Articles 24 and 32 of the Basic Law. The states are represented at the federal level through the Bundesrat, which is the upper house of the German parliament. India By virtue of its population, India is the largest democracy. It also operates a local government system, which has been able to stand the test of time. It is the third level of government apart from the State and Central governments. There are two types of Local Government in operation: Panchayats in rural areas and Municipalities in urban areas. The Panchayats are a linked-system of local bodies with village panchayats (average population about 5,000), panchayat samities at the intermediate level (average population about 100,000), and district panchaytas (average population about 1,000,000).The local government bodies are the democratic institutions at the basic level.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 17:41:24 +0000
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